A
13-foot python was killed in a building close to a male hostel at the
Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) in Awka, the Anambra State capital,
last Saturday. Worried by the development, students are calling on the
management to ensure their safety.
This happened at the Nnamdi Azikiwe
University (UNIZIK) in Awka, the Anambra State capital, last Saturday
when a python was killed in an uncompleted building close to a male hall
of residence.
Being a weekend, majority of the
students had gone out for extra-curricula activities; some chose to play
football; others engaged in other games.
Few minutes past 9am, an unidentified
man raised the alarm on sighting the python. Those in their hostels
thought it was a joke, until the python crawled out of the building.
Students ran helter skelter on seeing
it. A local hunter, who lives in the building, chased the python with a
cutlass, battling it for several minutes before overpowering it.
Students, who watched the scene from a
distance, were stunned by his bravery. The brave among them joined the
hunter to kill the python.
The students took the lifeless animal
round the campus in a triumphant mood. As they went round, some
students, out of fear that the python may come back to life, pulled
back.
Reliving the incident, the hunter, who
simply gave his name as Okey, said he found the python when he heard a
strange noise in the building.
He said: “Out of curiosity, I moved
round the building to know what was happening. I initially thought
somebody was held in captivity within the building. But, what I saw was
beyond my imagination. I saw the snake folded at a corner of a room. I
quickly fetched my cutlass and an iron rod and moved to attack it before
the students joined in killing it.”
The students wondered how the animal got into the campus.
A student, who gave his name as Iyke,
compared the scenario to a “movie scene”. He said: “I was playing
football with other mates as we do every weekend when we heard people
shouting, “python”, “python”, “python”. We left the field to see what
was going on and what we saw shocked us. It was like a scene in a movie.
I never saw a snake as big and long as this. The length of the snake
frightened other students, who ran away. We discovered that the hunter
had already overpowered the python. We joined in killing the snake.”
Another student, Ebuka Ezeah, said:
“When the hunter raised the alarm about the python, some brave students
rushed to the scene with stones and sticks. They hurled stones at the
snake, killing it on the spot.”
The students turned it all into a
carnival, celebrating the python’s death. They sang and danced, carrying
the python from one hostel to another and to various departments.
There was a drama when the school
security officers came to the hostel and attempted to remove the python.
But the students resisted, chanting: “bring back our snake”. The snake
was returned to the hunter.
Credit: Nation
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