Gunmen slay over 25 students in Nigeria

KADUNA:

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 militants, 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. A security source and several witnesses put the overall death toll from the attack at 40.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2012.