Prof. Augustine Angba, Vice Chancellor of the University of Cross River State, has denied media reports that a female student was raped on campus by hoodlums on November 21.
He stated this during a phone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Monday in Calabar.
According to Angba, the reported rape case was actually a phone theft case.
"On campus, no student was raped, beaten, or injured." It was a case of phone and food theft. We've had similar cases of phone theft on campus, and we've done everything we can to recover them," he said.
He blamed the error on "bloggers" who rushed to publish their reports without due investigation and balance from university authorities.
He stated that the police had begun an investigation in order to apprehend the suspects and recover the stolen phone and food.
According to him, the route where suspected hoodlums usually gain entrance into the hostel blocks has been noticed and efforts were on to install a barb wire to prevent further occurrences.
“We have asked the student involved to give us the registration number of the phone.
“We are going to pay for the tracking of the phone and also ensure it is recovered and handed over to the rightful owner.
“I keep advising my students. If hoodlums come for your phone, quickly hand it over to them because we can track phones. The lives of our students are paramount to us,” he said.
He advised students on campus to be vigilant about their security and to report any suspicious movement around them to the university authorities.