Members of the Claratian University of Nigeria community in Nekede, Imo State, were thrown into mourning when a seminarian, Suel Ambrose, slumped and died while performing during the passion of Christ drama.
It was gathered that tragedy struck when Ambrose who hailed from Benue State slumped while playing the role of the biblical Peter on the university’s campus in Owerri on Friday.
Our correspondent, who visited the campus on Saturday morning, was informed by some students that the deceased died on spot.
They also said he was confirmed dead at the Federal Medical Center, Owerri.
One of them, who identified himself as Mavis, said that the 25-year-old seminarian was a first-year student of Philosophy and had hoped to become a Catholic priest.
“He was playing the role of the biblical Peter in the drama and showed how Peter cut the ear of one of the soldiers when they came to arrest him. So, when the soldiers were chasing the disciples away to drive them away from Jesus, the young man (Ambrose) 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. We took him to the Federal Medical Center in Owerri and that was his end. 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 was a year-one student and had the dream of becoming a priest in the Catholic Church.”
Our correspondent observed that the school premises were quiet as there was no activity taking place in the school following the tragedy.
The priest in charge of students formation in the university, Fr Chukwuemeka Iheme, told our correspondent that the institution would brief the public after the “authority gives us permission to do so.”
