The University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), on Monday, faulted the police report that one Emmanuel Gambo, whom it recently arrested in connection with the murder of Deborah Sam-Praise Ememem, is a student of the institution.
It stated that the reports linking the suspect to the Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering at the school are false and misleading.
The police, through a statement last week by the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Daniel Ndukwe, had claimed that the suspect is a second-year student of the Materials and Metallurgical Engineering Department of the UNN.
The acting Public Relations Officer of the UNN, Inya Agha Egwu, declared that the suspect is not a student of the institution.“We wish to categorically state that this claim is false and misleading.
“We have painstakingly investigated and cross-checked students’ records from 200 level to 500 level within the Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, as well as a verification from the Faculty of Engineering office, no such name as Emmanuel Gambo exists in the database of students registered in the department or the faculty,” he said.
He continued: “The University views this false association of a murder suspect as a gross misrepresentation and a defamation of the integrity of not only the Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering but also the entire Faculty of Engineering and the University of Nigeria at large.
“We therefore urge media outlets, bloggers, and the general public to desist from further spreading this unfounded information.
“The University of Nigeria remains committed to academic excellence, discipline, and the moral upbringing of its students, and will not condone any attempt to tarnish its image through misinformation.”
An outcry had recently greeted the discovery of the mangled body of 22-year-old Deborah at a hotel in Obukpa-Nsukka, where she was allegedly killed.
Reports from the police had it that she checked into the hotel a night before at about 9.00 pm with the suspect but was murdered in the early hours of the next day following a dispute that arose over the second round of intercourse.
The police said that the suspect had wrapped the deceased’s body in a towel and a curtain torn from the hotel room and hid it under the bed, adding that the suspect provided a false name and an unreachable phone number on the hotel’s registration form, which initially hindered efforts to trace and arrest him.