HOURS AFTER UNIBEN TRAGEDY: CULT COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN RESIGNS, CITES IGNORED WARNINGS, ACCUSES VC

HOURS AFTER UNIBEN TRAGEDY: CULT COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN RESIGNS, CITES IGNORED WARNINGS, ACCUSES VC

By Informed Lens Global Media (ILGM)

May 10, 2026 | Benin City, Edo State

A shocking new dimension has emerged in the killing of a man outside the University of Benin (UNIBEN) main gate yesterday with the Chairman of the university's Cult Renunciation, Reconciliation, Reformation, Rehabilitation and Inter-Faith Committee (CR4IC), Venerable Egbenusi, publicly resigning his position and alleging that the Vice Chancellor personally threatened him to delete video evidence of the incident.

In a detailed resignation statement obtained by ILGM, Ven. Egbenusi recounted how he received clips related to suspected cult activity on campus and, acting in fulfilment of his committee mandate, forwarded them to the Vice Chancellor as a matter of duty hours before the fatal shooting occurred.

Shortly after, he said, sporadic gunshots were heard near the Chapel Vicarage on campus. Further clips reached him showing a violent cult confrontation in which a man was killed in front of the school gate along the express road. He again forwarded these to the VC.

What followed, according to Ven. Egbenusi, was not a security response but a threat.

"Within minutes, you telephoned me," he wrote in his resignation letter. "The nature of that call was not commensurate with the gravity of the security situation I had brought to your attention. You called furiously, demanding that I delete the clips I had transmitted clips that constitute a contemporaneous record of a violent incident in which a human life was lost."

He alleged that the Vice Chancellor issued a countdown ultimatum beginning at five minutes, reduced to three, then to two within which the clips were to be deleted. The VC reportedly threatened to report him to the head of the Anglican Communion, deploy university security to evict him from the Chapel Vicarage, and dared him to resist.

Ven. Egbenusi, however, was unequivocal in his response.

"I have not deleted the said clips and shall not do so," he stated. "A human life was lost this evening. Whatever legal, investigative, or disciplinary processes that loss may properly trigger, within this institution or beyond it, require that evidence be preserved not destroyed at the telephonic instruction of an administrator."

He described the VC's actions as "unwarranted, disproportionate, and inconsistent with the expected cordiality and dignity of our offices," adding that they constituted "a direct assault on the office of the University Chaplain" and "a personal affront directed at a priest of God who acted in good faith."

The allegations, if substantiated, raise serious questions about the university's commitment to transparency in handling security incidents on its campus and whether institutional interests are being placed above justice for a man who lost his life at its gates.

Ven. Egbenusi has since tendered his resignation as Chairman of the CR4IC, citing the incident as the immediate cause. He stated that the threats directed at him were irreconcilable with the integrity of his ecclesiastical office and his pastoral mandate.

UNIBEN management and the Vice Chancellor's office are yet to respond to the allegations at the time of this publication. The Edo State Police Command has equally not issued any statement on the killing.

ILGM will continue to follow this story as it develops.

Reporting by Informed Lens Global Media | Follow us for updates

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