Mubi Student Massacre: Killers Called Out Students’ Names Before Shooting Them, Say Police

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.
“We are just leaving Mubi
with the Commissioner of
Police, and Brigade
Commander. And it was 19
students that were killed… all
in all it was 25 persons that
were killed. 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”,
Ibrahim said.
A spokesman for the
National Emergency
Management Agency said
initial reports indicated some
of the victims were
candidates in the polls.
"The crisis in Mubi is
suspected to have been
fueled by campus politics
after an election at the
Federal Polytechnic," said the
agency's Yushau Shuaib.
Abdulkarim Bello of the Red
Cross said "they were
conducting elections in the
Federal Polytechnic and
unknown gunmen just
entered and sprayed people
with bullets".
A student who refused to
give his name, said that the
gunmen were wearing
solders’ uniforms, and were
calling out the names of
individual students before
killing them, a claim that
tallies with the police report.
The student said that after
surrounding the compound
around midnight, the
gunmen started taking the
students outside, asking their
names and shooting them,
while others butchered the
bodies with sharp knives. The
mutilated corpses were left
lined up in the courtyard.
The student said the killings
were likely to have a
connection with last Sunday’s
Student Union Government
elections, which was heavily
contested on regional
ground between Northern
and Southern students in the
institution.
A resident told the BBC: “It is
not clear why some were
killed and others spared -
some of the dead were
Muslims and others
Christian… Everybody is
scared," adding that the
shooting lasted for about
two hours.
Adamawa state, where Mubi
is located, has been hit by
violence blamed on Islamist
extremist group Boko
Haram, and Mubi itself was
the site of a recent high-
profile military raid targeting
the insurgents. Boko Haram
has not yet commented on
the Mubi attacks.