The two (some accounts say there were four) students of Nasarawa State University were killed during an operation by security men called to put down the demonstration over persistent water scarcity and blackouts on the campus in Keffi.
An unspecified number of other students were wounded in the melee.
According to some accounts, a few students had embarked on the protest to register their complaint on the absence of water and electricity that they said was disrupting their normal academic work.
The initially small group of students was quickly joined by other colleagues. They said that they had to abandon classes and other everyday activities to search for water to bath with, to do their laundry and perform other chores.
The protest gathered momentum and spilled into the town and then turned violent. What happened at that point is unclear.
Some accounts claimed that soldiers, who were part of the security agents deployed to restore order, had shot into the crowd of students.
Early accounts quoted some soldiers as saying that they shot back when they were fired at from among the rampaging students.
The Army issued a statement denying that characterisation of what happened. Its Director of Public Relations, Brigadier General Ibrahim Attahiru, said no soldier was involved in the shooting. In fact, Attahiru noted that the duty of soldiers deployed in Keffi was not for 'peacekeeping'.
The police also declaimed responsibility when approached to account for the students' deaths. Instead, the Force Public Relations Officer, Mr Frank Mba, said 'any question on the killing of the students should be directed to the Army'.
The university's senate ordered the institution's closure, while the vice chancellor, Professor Shamsuddeen Amali, issued a statement expressing 'deep regrets over the recent happenings that led to the death of two students on the federal highway'.
Officials of the state water board blamed the low water supply to absence or epileptic power supply from the public utility Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN); they also claimed that their standby power sources had broken down. Flimsy excuses.
The immediate action that needs to be taken by the Nasarawa State government, the police and the army, is to determine those who pulled the trigger on the students.
In the face of trading blame by spokesmen of the security agents directly involved in controlling the demonstration, it would require the state government to institute an independent judicial inquiry to unravel the killers. Water is essential to all aspects of existence; particular priority ought to have been attached to making it possible to provide the facilities on-campus to pipe water to all the student hostels.
It is also inconceivable that the Nasarawa State University does not have its independent source of water, like boreholes, and power generators, to service the classrooms and hostels.
The immediate cause of the students' protest is water and prolonged blackout, which the university was in a position to provide the infrastructure for them. If it is true that there had been persistent absence of both, then this would amount to a case of negligence on the path of both the university's authorities and the Nasarawa State government.
The fatal shooting of the students needs to be thoroughly investigated and those involved identified and punished.
Although this does not necessarily cast blame or prejudge any inquiry, security officials need to be cautioned against resorting to shooting to kill in situations like this one.
The Nasarawa State government should draw the appropriate lesson from this unfortunate incident, by speeding up the provision of funds to build water sources and well-maintained alternative power supply sources in all its higher institutions.
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