Six students of St. Joseph's College Ombaci in Arua city have been arrested and are currently being detained at Arua CPS to assist police with investigations into the death of their colleague.
The deceased is Aziz Adnani an S.4 student at the same school who succumbed to injuries sustained after he was attacked and beaten up by unknown people on 4/3/2022.
It is alleged that Adnani was injured in a fight that ensued between a group of students and some locals during a friendly football match in Koboko Municipality.
SP Angucia Josephine PRO West Nile Region says that the deceased and others sneaked out of the football ground in Koboko to go and buy some local brew in the nearby village.
However, a fight ensued between the students and the locals over alcohol and as they ran back to the football pitch, the angry locals managed to get ahold of the deceased and beat him up.
The students did not inform the school management about the matter but sneaked their friend onto the school bus and later to the Radiology clinic for treatment from where he died.
The school administration only learnt about the incident when it was too late. According to Angucia, postmortem results indicated that the student died due to multiple injuries after being hit by blunt objects several times on the body.
However, back at the school, the deceased’s friends lied to their colleagues that Adnani was knocked by the school bus at the school gate hence sustaining injuries that caused his death.
This prompted the students to go on strike at around 10pm in the night between 5th and 6th March 2022. They destroyed all school properties and were only stopped by police.
About 900 students left the school immediately after the destruction and slept outside the school premises. 82 camped at the church, 45 were found by police on the way heading to Arua town and were taken to Arua CPS for safety, while others slept at unknown places.
At about 9:00am on Sunday 6/3/2022 morning, the school management ordered all students to park their properties and go home indefinitely to create room for investigations as well as allow the school to design a way forward into the matter.
Angucia says inquiries are underway to arrest all ring leaders who will face the law accordingly. Currently, Police maintains deployment at the school.
