African News Agency : Welcome

Abuja, 3 Oct -(ANA) - Nigeria's authorities are investigating the killings of at least 26 people in an attack on a college hostel in the north-eastern town of Mubi. Most victims were students called out by name by the gunmen, police said. A resident said the attackers went from door-to-door, shooting or stabbing. It is unclear who is responsible. Some suspect the Boko Haram militant group, while police sources are linking it to a student union election, which was contested on sectarian lines. Rivalry between different groups of students, sometimes influenced by national politics, religion and ethnicity, is not a new phenomenon in Nigeria's higher educational institutions; however, this would be the first time it has reached such a level of violence. Leadership positions on campuses can be a stepping stone for a future career in national politics, which many in Nigeria see as a licence to get rich quickly. A curfew has been in imposed and the college closed down. Police in Adamawa state said the gunmen had inside knowledge, but stressed that the motive for the attack was not yet clear. Reports suggest men in military uniform entered a hall of residence outside the main campus shortly before midnight and gathered the students outside their rooms. Some were shot dead and others stabbed with knives, and their bodies left in lines outside the buildings. Some of the dead in Mubi were Muslim while others were Christian. Two security guards and an elderly resident were among the victims, the police said.(ANA)