Gunmen kill at least 26 students at Nigerian college
Tue Oct 2, 2012 3:36pm GMT
* Hall of residence attacked by gunmen
* Northern Nigeria home to Islamist sect
* Police investigate political feud as possible motive (Adds details,
background, police spokesman)
By Garba Mohammed and Isaac Abrak
KADUNA, Nigeria, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead at least 26 students in
an attack overnight on their college residence in northeast Nigeria, a
college spokesman said on Tuesday.
The attack took place at the Federal Polytechnic Mubi in remote Adamawa
state late on Monday night, the head of the information department at the
college said by telephone.
"The killers went from room to room, slaughtering them one by one," said
witness Mohammed Awal, who was not harmed in the attack. Some were shot,
others killed with machetes, he said.
Adamawa state, like much of the north, has been targeted by Islamist
insurgents, but police were also investigating whether the killings might
have been motivated by a political feud inside the college.
"We learned that when they came for the attack, they called out the names of
some of the victims and killed them as they came out. Some they left alone,
which gives us a clue that this was the work of insiders," said Adamawa
police spokesman Mohammed Ibrahim. He put the toll confirmed by police at
25.
He said the student halls had been raided by police last week as part of a
sweep against Boko Haram militants. During the raid, police recovered
weapons including a rocket propelled grenade, dozens of homemade bombs,
knives and automatic assault rifles. He added that it could not be ruled out
that Boko Haram militants who had infiltrated the students were behind it.
A security source and several witnesses put the overall death toll from the
attack at 40.
The Boko Haram Islamist sect, which usually targets politicians or security
forces, has also attacked students in the past and has cells in Adamawa.
Security sources believe it has infiltrated several institutions, including
colleges.
But police were also investigating the possibility that the killings were
related to a dispute between rival political groups at the college over a
student union election on Sunday, in a part of Nigeria that is awash with
weapons.
Colleges across the country are sometimes plagued by armed gangs and
vigilante groups.
"The crisis in Mubi is suspected to have been fuelled by campus politics
after the election ... the ones who were disgruntled might have ... (carried
out) the attack," said National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Yushua
Shuaib.
Boko Haram is widely considered to be the biggest security threat in
Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil exporter. It has been blamed for more than
1,000 deaths since its insurgency - which aims to carve out an Islamic state
out of northern Nigeria - intensified in 2010.
Boko Haram's purported leader released a video on Monday in which he vowed
to continue fighting and said no peace talks with the government could
happen while military raids against sect members continued. (Additional
reporting by Mike Oboh in Abuja, Funon Inusa in Bauchi, Anamesere
Igboeroteonwu in Onitsha and Tim Cocks in Lagos; Writing by Tim Cocks;
Editing by Rosalind Russell)
C Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved
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Received on Tue Oct 02 2012 - 18:48:17 EDT
