Wanafunzi 26 wauawa kwa risasi, visu Chuo Kikuu

The Nigerian Police Force has officially confirmed that the unknown gunmen that killed scores of students at Federal Polytechnic, Mubi, Adamawa State, called out the names of the student victims before killing them.

Police said the assailants shot and killed 19 students in an off-campus student housing area, and six other persons including a security guard, retired soldier and other persons who were not students.

Fifteen students sustained serious injuries and are hospitalized, said Adamawa State Police Command, Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Mohammed Ibrahim in a phone interview.

Wakati huohuo kuna habari kwamba,
 

No fewer than 40 students of the Adamawa State University, the Federal Polytechnic and the School of Health Technology, all in Mubi, Adamawa State have been killed in a midnight attack by gunmen in Mubi.

 

Some residents put the number of victims at 35 persons while others said 26 students were killed.

The incident happened at about 10 p.m on Monday at Wuro Fatuje, a popular off campus hostel housing students from the three tertiary institutions.

A source at the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi told Vanguard in a telephone conversation that the gunmen invaded the off campus hostel on Monday night and took advantage of the down pour to unleash terror.

The source said the gunmen shot sporadically for hours, adding that this left many students dead, adding that 26 students were confirmed killed on the spot, while scores of others were injured, many of them on danger list.

The source, who quoted eyewitness accounts, added that the gunfire kept residents of Mubi awake all night, heightening the already tense situation in the area. 

He said he counted 26 dead bodies at the Mubi General Hospital yesterday morning, even as more bodies were being recovered from the venue of the incident.

The incident came barely a week after the Joint Military Task Force recorded a major breakthrough, arresting over 156 suspected terrorists and discovering a local bomb manufacturing factory as well as cache of arms and ammunition. Since the major breakthrough, a 24-hour curfew has been imposed on Mubi and its environs.

At press time, Brigade Commander of 23 Armoured Brigade, Yola, Brigadier General John Nwoaga; 

State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Geoffrey Okereke; Director of State Security Service, SSS and other service commanders have relocated to Mubi for on-the-spot assessment of the insecurity problem.

The police have, meantime, officially confirmed that the unknown gunmen that carried out the attack called out the names of the student victims before killing them.

Police said the assailants shot and killed 19 students in an off-campus student housing area, and six other persons including a security guard, a retired soldier and other persons who were not students. 

Adamawa State Police Command Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Mohammed Ibrahim, in a phone interview with an online publication said 15 students sustained serious injuries and have been hospitalized.

He said: "We are just leaving Mubi with the Commissioner of Police, and Brigade Commander. Nineteen of the 25 persons killed were students. 

Although the investigation is continuing, there are signs that there may have been some internal factors, but we cannot prove it until we complete our investigation."

A spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, however, said initial reports indicated some of the victims were candidates in the student elections.