3 Students Badly Injured As Gunmen Storm ESUT

Three students of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Agbani, are battling for their lives at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH).

TheNation reports that the victims were badly injured in shooting on Friday night, September 26, when unknown bandits invaded their hostel. It was suspected that the gunmen could be members of a secret cult.

It has been learnt that the students were rushed to UNTH in the early hours of Saturday. Intensive surgery at the hospital continues to save their lives.

One of the victims was wounded in the stomach. The damage is believed to be really severe. The doctors are reportedly battling to remove some pellets of the bullet, which makes the operation even more difficult.

The two other students are being treated in the same hospital. Their condition still remains unclear, while efforts are being made to contact their parents.

The area of the tragedy, the Unique Hostel, and other neighbouring hostels within the Agbani Permanent site of the ESUT, have been placed under security watch.

The move to beef up security may also be explained by management’s attempt to forestall a possible reprisal attack. Plain-clothe policemen deployed to strategic locations in and around the hostels.

The attack has been confirmed by police spokesperson, Mr Ebere Amaraizu. According to him, the preliminary investigations showed that the gunmen could be “student robbers”. The spokesperson has reassured that the police would take the proper steps for detailed investigation of this matter.

Amaraizu did not give much information on the arrests being made, adding that the command would provide further details about the ongoing investigations as they come.

“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 spokesperson said.

It is not the first time this year trouble happens with ESUT students. On July 24, 2014, a bus belonging to Enugu State Ministry of Transport was destroyed by fire. About 60 ESUT students have miraculously escaped death.