Tragedy struck at Claratian University of Nigeria, Nekede, in Owerri, Imo State, on Friday, as a seminarian, Suel Ambrose, slumped and died while acting in a drama on campus.
Our correspondent who visited the campus on Saturday morning was told by students that the deceased who hailed from Benue State was dramatising the role of the biblical Peter in the Passion of Christ when the incident occurred.
The drama is a representation of the activities about how Jesus Christ was crucified.
One of the students who simply identified himself as Mavis said the 25-year-old first-year student of Philosophy died on the spot.
The student said, “He was playing the role of the biblical Peter in the dream and that process when Peter cut the ear of one of the soldiers and Jesus fixed the ear and ask Peter to let them do their wish. You know how passionate the play is.
“So when the soldiers chase the disciples to drive them away from Jesus, the young man fell on the floor and started bleeding. We took him to our school hospital and the doctors did their best but he was not responding to treatment. We took him to the Federal Medical Center in Owerri where he was pronounced dead.”
“The drama was in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in respect to the Easter celebration. He was born in 1997. He is a year one student and had the dream of becoming a priest in the Catholic church.”
Our correspondent observed that the school premises was quiet as there was no activity taking place with respect to the Easter celebration after the incident in the school.
The priest in charge of Student Formation in the university, Fr Chukwuemeka Iheme, when approached by our correspondent, said that the institution would brief the public after the “authority gives us permission to do so.”
