Arrests have been made by the Nigerian police following the killing of at least 30 people at a college hostel in the north-eastern town of Mubi.
The town of Mubi is presently under a wide blackout even though it has been under the same condition last week, after a series of arrests of people suspected in associations to the Boko Haram. The police still remain uncertain of who is responsible for the attack; the aggressors went from door-to-door, shooting and stabbing people who most of the victims of the incident were students. Reports says men in military uniform entered a hall of residence outside the main campus shortly before midnight and gathered the students outside their rooms. After they were killed, their bodies were left in lines outside the buildings. The police are relating the crime to a student union election, which was contested on sectarian lines while other sources suspect Boko Haram militant group.
A BBC reveals that the newly elected leader of the student union at the Federal Polytechnic Mubi was among those reported to have been killed. Rivalry between different groups of students, sometimes influenced by national politics, religion and society, is not a new phenomenon in Nigeria’s higher educational institutions. Leadership positions on campuses can be a stepping stone for a future career in national politics, which many in Nigeria see as a license to get rich quickly.
According to a local resident and a school official at least 40 people were killed but only 25 bodies were taken to the mortuary because relatives took away the bodies of the other 15. Some of the dead in Mubi were Muslim while others were Christian. Amongst the victims were two security guards and an elderly resident. Nigeria is almost equally divided between a largely Muslim population in the north and Christian south.The Nigeria’s Senate on October 3 condemned the killing of innocent students and urged the federal government to move quickly in arresting the people responsible for the crime.
