CULTISM: 3 DIE IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY

Three students of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Agbani are on danger list of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH).

They were shot on Friday night and wounded by suspected armed bandits who invaded their hostel.

The affected students are currently undergoing intensive surgery at the hospital where they were rushed in the early hours of Saturday.

One of the students was shot in the stomach and it was suspected that some pellets of the bullet were lodged in his abdomen for which doctors are battling to remove.

The two other victims were also undergoing surgery at the hospital while efforts were being made to contact their parents.

The Unique Hostel where the incident occurred and other hostels within the Agbani Permanent site of the university, according to sources, have been placed under security watch as it was suspected that the gunmen could be members of a secret cult.

To forestall a reprisal attack, the source said, the management had taken measures to beef up security at the hostels with plain-clothe policemen deployed to strategic locations.

Police spokesman, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu,  who confirmed the armed attack said that preliminary investigations revealed that the gunmen could be “student robbers”,  assuring that the police would do everything possible to get to the root of the matter.

He could not say if any arrest had been made but he said that the command was already on top of the situation and would give further details after the ongoing investigations.

“From what we gathered when the gunmen attacked some students at the ESUT Unique Lodge, which is mainly Boys Hostel, there was a stiff resistance by the students who succeeded in arresting one of the gunmen.  The arrested gunman alerted his armed colleagues who returned to the hostel and began shooting indiscriminately during which three of the students were shot and wounded,” the police spokesman said.