SANDEMA: Student protest leaves one dead

One student of the Sandema Senior High Technical School has been confirmed dead following a clash with the police on Tuesday.

The incident is reported to have happened Tuesday evening after school authorities instructed the school cadet corps to retire to bed at 10 pm as stipulated by the school’s rules and regulations.

The directive was however flouted by some students who were subsequently punished for their refusal to obey school regulation.

After kneeling for close to 30 minutes and upon the intervention of a pleading teacher, the students were pardoned.

Shortly after that incident though, some of the angry students went on rampage in protest of what they deemed to be unfair punishment meted out to them.

They torched the bungalows of some teachers as well as some property belonging to staff of the school.

The police upon a tip-off moved to the school campus in a bid to restore calm but were met with resistance from the students.

The students became more agitated following the intervention by the police – a situation which led to a standoff with the protesting students setting fire to the school’s administrative block.

They also vandalized the windscreen of the police vehicle while electricity meters, PVC pipes, a salon car and other property were also destroyed in the process.

A warning shot aimed at dispersing the protesting crowd strayed and hit a member of the protesting group, mistakenly killing him.

Another student who collapsed following the incident is however responding to treatment after being resuscitated.

Security has since been intensified on the school campus while investigations into the riot have commenced.