Nigeria: Gunmen kill 46 students in deadly varsity attack

Gunmen wearing military attires raided university hostels in a northern Nigerian town, killing 46 students in a deadly Independence Day massacre.

The attack occurred between 10 pm Monday and 3 am Tuesday at the Adamawa State University in Mubi town in the northern state of Adamawa, prompting an exodus of frightened students.

Gunmen invaded hostels of Federal Polytechnic School and killed as many as 46 students while injuring dozens, police and school sources said.

A spokesman for the Federal Polytechnic told PTI that the gunmen wore military attires and told the students to identify themselves by name. He said some of them were spared after mentioning their names but no reason was given by the assailants for the identification process.

According to him, the number of students killed from his institution was 26, while 20 others were students from other colleges of the town.

Authorities say they speculate that students may have been behind the attacks, but Mubi and the surrounding region have also suffered from a spate of killings by the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram.

"The crisis in Mubi is suspected to have been fuelled by campus politics after an election at the (college)," said Yushau Shuaib, spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency in a statement. Across colleges and universities in Nigeria, some fraternities have turned to gang violence to wield power on campuses.

However, Danjuma Aiso, a student, told the Associated Press that some had recently found a written warning pasted on the gate of the female hostel inside the campus and which is widely believed to have been written by members of the Boko Haram sect. The message ordered authorities to evacuate the school, he said.

The college attack follows the Saturday killing of three students outside a university campus, about 170 km away, in the city of Maiduguri, Boko Haram's spiritual home.

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