Suspected cultists invade ESUT

… disrupt semester exams

By Vincent Ujumadu

ENUGU — Armed young men, suspected to be members of a secret cult, Tuesday, launched an attack on the Agbani Campus of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT, injuring some lecturers and students who were taking their first semester examinations.

The incident which occurred at about noon paralysed the activities of the university, as students, academic and non-academic staff ran into the bush for safety.

An eyewitness told Vanguard that the students were writing the semester examinations in different departments of the institution, when the gunmen, about 20 and driving in an unmarked commuter bus, stormed the campus,  shooting sporadically into the air as they made their way into classrooms and main hall of the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Rivalry

Seeing the students taking their examinations, the hoodlums who were said to be searching for members of a rival cult group, moved towards the identified enemies and dealt severe blows on them.

Some male students broke the aluminum glasses on the windows and jumped out, but their female colleagues and lecturers supervising the examinations were not so lucky as they sustained various degrees of injury.

The suspected cultists who wore fez caps, reportedly searched the handbags of the female students and removed GSM handsets, money and jewelries as they continued to shoot into the air to scare away private security men in the university.

The invading gunmen, however, finished their operations and left before a team of policemen arrived the campus and no arrest was made.

Eyewitness account

“It was a terrible thing. I have never seen a thing like this.  Some of the young men carried two short guns in both hands and were shooting as if they came for a war. But thank God nobody died, but I saw so many students bleeding on account of injuries sustained,” a student told Vanguard at the Ebeano Campus.

It was learnt that one students was hit by a stray bullet and was rushed to an unknown hospital while others, including students and lecturers, wounded in the attack, were reportedly taken to University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH, Ituku-Ozalla for treatment.