Mubi: One massacre too many – Rain of mercy saved our lives, survivors say

FOR the students, lecturers, instructors and other community members of the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi in Adamawa State, the traumatic incident of Monday, 1st October, 2012 will remain indelible.   Twenty five people, mostly students of the polytechnic and few others from the adjoining College of Health Technology and other residents, were massacred by unknown gunmen […]

FOR the students, lecturers, instructors and other community members of the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi in Adamawa State, the traumatic incident of Monday, 1st October, 2012 will remain indelible.

 

Twenty five people, mostly students of the polytechnic and few others from the adjoining College of Health Technology and other residents, were massacred by unknown gunmen in the dead of the night.

Some of the students who escaped the attack thanked God for a heavy downpour which they dubbed “Rain of Mercy” which quenched the flames thrown into their houses.

One of the survivors John Bello, a student of the Federal Polytechnic Mubi, told the Associated Press yesterday that sabotaged phone lines prevented them from warning friends that could have saved lives.

He said only one mobile phone network was working in Mubi and that it was congested.

He said “we could maybe have alerted some of those that were killed if the networks weren’t down.”

Student Danjuma Aiso said he could hear gunshots for five hours.

The killings came a month after the radical Islamist sect, Boko Haram, attacked phone masts in Nigeria’s northeast that crippled communications in the violence-torn region.

For now, the killings remain a mystery because no individual or group has claimed responsibility. It is also the first time that such a gruesome incident occurred in the polytechnic and Mubi town as a whole, authorities and residents said.

“The Mubi mystery is the first of its kind in recent times, a cold blooded murder of defenseless students,” Mama Jummai Sa’idu, a 73-year-old widow, who lives close to the polytechnic, told Weekly Trust.

Survivors and authorities said the attackers moved from one house to the other, in most cases, calling their victims by names and then killing them as soon as they answered and came out of their rooms.

And in a situation whereby the victims refused to surrender, their houses are set ablaze, even as the assailants thereafter took strategic positions and attacked anyone who attempted to escape, survivors said.

Many other victims sustained life threatening injuries as a result of the night raid, which was carefully carried out by yet to be identified gunmen, who stormed the students’ hostels located outside the main campus of the institutions.

Houses, cars, power generating sets as well as the Redeemed Christian Church in Wuro-fatuji, where the students’ houses are located had been burnt to ashes.

Survivors said their colleagues were gruesomely murdered as some of the victims were either slaughtered or shot.

Scores escaped death by the whiskers, though it will take them long time nursing the deep cuts they sustained, either as a result of machete cuts, burns from raging flames or injuries inflicted by barb wires while attempting to scale over the perimeter fences of their residences.

It was a gory sight on Tuesday, 2nd October, when security operatives, relatives and humanitarian agencies mobilized to the students’ hostels and recovered the dead bodies that littered the area.

“If not for the heavy downpour that God sent while the killing was going on, we would have been burnt to ashes,” survivors Michael John and Isma’ila Yusuf, both final year students of the Department of Management Studies, said.

The two, who were among those taken to the Specialists Hospital in Yola for treatment, said when they resisted opening their door after endless knocks, the assailants set their compound ablaze.

“We were trapped inside the house while the fire was raging. God in His mercy sent a heavy downpour that put off the fire and through His grace, the two of us escaped after scaling the fence,” Yusuf said.

“The attackers hit me with a dagger on the leg. Am grateful to God for sparing my life,” he said.

Michael, who was also discharged from the hospital in Yola, vowed that he will never return to Mubi.

“Now that I have been discharged from hospital, am going straight to my village in Anambra State. I have forfeited the three years I spent here. And let me tell you, I am not the only one who has vowed never to come back, we are many. I am going home to look for fresh admission,” he said.

He said if not for the rain, the toll of students would have been unimaginable. Once you refuse to open the door of your house, the attackers would simply set the place ablaze and move to their next target,” he said.

Adamawa State police spokesman, DSP Ibrahim Mohammed told Weekly Trust that 25 people lost their lives in the tragedy.

“Nineteen students are from the polytechnic; three others from the School of Health Technology. Also killed are a security guard attached to the polytechnic, a retired military man and a civilian,” he said.

When asked about the identity of the people killed, the police spokesman said, “I can’t tell you that one, but full investigation has commenced with a view to unravelling the mystery,” he said, stressing that investigators are not ruling out internal factor, based on preliminary findings.

“We have seen black Independence Monday…I saw more than 30 dead bodies being taken away in pickup vehicles. Some have gunshots in their heads and chest while others were slaughtered,” Aminu Usman, another student of the polytechnic, said.

“I would have been dead by now…God saved me, because I passed the night in the class inside the campus preparing for examinations. Three students were killed in the quarters I live,” he said.

He said all the people killed are male and that their identities cut across diverse background. “Both Muslims and Christians had been killed. I was told that whenever the attackers knock a door and hear the voice of ladies, they would simply proceed to the next door,” he said.

As at the time of filing this report, some of the decapitate corpses of the victims are still at the Specialists Hospital in Yola.

Families of some of the victims had arrived from far places and waiting to recover the remains of their loved ones for burial.

“I am finished, my hope is gone,” a middle aged woman was seen wailing at the hospital on Tuesday, even as some of her sisters and brothers tried to console her.

The hospital’s morgue was a gory scene. Some of the victims were seen on a stretcher in the pool of their blood. Some have gunshot wounds while others were slaughtered.

But the biggest question that is yet to be answered is who is behind the heinous attack?

For now, authorities in the polytechnic, students, the Adamawa State government and pundits are sharply divided on the actual motive behind the attack.

However, few hours after the incident, suspicion fell immediately on members of the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, also known as Boko Haram.

Some people said the violent attack was not perpetrated by the Boko Haram, but an outcome of deadly campus politics which favoured a northern Muslim as the president of the Students’ Union Government (SUG) election which was held two days before the killings.

Those in favour of the first assertion said the capacity of the Boko Haram to vent their anger should never be underestimated. They argued that the killing of the students was carried out less than ten days after operatives of the Joint Task Force (JTF) uncovered bomb factories in Mubi and thereafter slammed a 24-hour curfew on the town, which culminated in the arrest of 156 suspecta and recovery of weapons, including chemicals, arms and ammunition, over 500 daggers, AK-47 assault rifles, locally-made pistols, and rocket launchers, among others.

“One of the characteristics of the Boko Haram is returning fire for fire…they are capable of doing anything to assert their influence and prove that they are a force to reckon with,” Barrister Ali Abubakar, a legal practitioner who has been following the trend of security challenges in the northeast, said.

“If you look at the pattern of the Boko Haram attacks, they always carry out deadly onslaught in places where their members have been arrested. Look at what has been happening in Maiduguri, Damaturu and Kano.

“Another point is that once members of the group are rounded up, those who escaped will move to another location. From all indications, Mubi is one of their strongholds now,” Barrister Abubakar said.

Babawuro Abba, a student of the polytechnic, holds a contrary view, insisting that the killing has political connotation.

“Everybody now takes law into their hands and there are countless sophisticated weapons in the hands of civilians…everybody is willing to showcase the gun he has at the slightest provocation. All criminals now hide under the guise of Boko Haram to wreak havoc,” he said.

According to him, “the election (at Mubi Poly) was plagued by violence, because the students have taken sides…Muslims supported Muslim candidates and Christians supported Christian candidates.

“I am not a Boko Haram member, but I am sure the group was not responsible for this mayhem. The politics in Mubi Poly is even beyond the students…it has degenerated and tore the ranks of the management.

“Remember, the problem in Mubi Poly predates the recent election. Even among the staff of the polytechnic, there is high profile rivalry. The new rector that we have is from the north and the immediate one is from the south. During the tenure of the latter, the southerners were favoured in terms of everything, including admission, contracts and the rest,” he said.

“And when the time for this election came, it coincided with the coming of the new rector and some people from the north said the status quo must change. They deployed all the advantages they have and won the key offices. This did not go down well with our colleagues from the south and the rest of the story is history,” he said.

It was gathered that the newly elected public relations officer (PRO) whose name could not be ascertained was among those killed. So also Mr. Lucky Emmanuel, the president of Mass Communication Students Union (MACOSA), who actively participated in the election processes.

However, contrary to claims that the killings were sparked off by the outcome of students’ union elections which gave victory to Muslim northerner against a Christian southerner, Malam Ahmed Baba Karewal, the Dean of Students’ Affairs of the polytechnic, told pressmen that the Monday’s attack had nothing to do with the students’ union election.

Karewal, who was also a member of the electoral committee said, “the election and what has happened do not correlate. Again, I have been here (in Mubi Poly) for the past 19 years and we don’t have reported cases of cultism,” he said.

“The election was free and affair. It was held on Saturday, 29thSeptember, 2012 and all electoral processes and procedures as well as campaign guidelines were strictly adhered to.

“Voting commenced by 8am and ended by 1pm and there were no hitches or disturbances. The votes were counted in front of agents of all the contestants. The agents accepted the results before final results were announced,” he said.

On his part, Dr. Sadiq Yahaya,   Rrector of the institution, said the killing of the 25 people was the worst thing that ever happened to the polytechnic in its over 30 years of existence.

The rector stated this when he granted audience to Mr. Bala Ngillari, the deputy governor of Adamawa State, who paid him a condolence visit in his office.

“We accept your condolences…we are saddened by the unfortunate killing of innocent people. We fervently pray that this will never happen again, not only in this institution but anywhere in the world.

“We have set up a committee that will investigate the killing. The committee will also look at the possibility of reopening the school so that students would write their exams,” he said.

Dr. Yahaya also appealed to the federal and Adamawa State governments to assist the polytechnic and construct students’ hostel. “If we have enough accommodation in the campus, our students won’t live off campus,” he said.

Earlier, the deputy governor said Adamawa State government was deeply touched by the killing of the students. “Our hearts are heavy over this unfortunate incident. Anybody who is familiar with the history of Mubi knows that it is a town of diverse people who live peacefully with one another.

“Anybody who comes to Mubi finds succour here. We are all human beings and people of religions. We don’t create, only God creates and there is no reason for anyone to kill a fellow human being,” Ngillari said.

He equally commiserated with families of the deceased. “It is not easy to lose the child you raise over many years. We pray God to give all of us the fortitude to bear the loss,” the deputy governor said.

Weekly Trust reports that Mubi is one of the major commercial centres in the northeast, but has now assumed the status of the biggest flashpoint in Adamawa State. It is a town that shares border with Borno State, the hotbed of the Boko Haram sect. Its closeness to the Republic of Cameroon that shares countless porous borders with Nigeria has made the town a formidable empire for all kinds of crimes.

The recent killing has also turned Mubi into another garrison city. On Thursday, four days after the killing of the 25 people, about 40 military pickup vans and two articulated trailer vehicles took more than 500 soldiers to the town.

Mubi residents have also expressed mixed feelings over the recent development. “We hope the soldiers will not impose a 72-hour curfew on us like they did in Damaturu about two weeks ago,” Baba Tela, a resident said.

When contacted on phone, the commander of the 23rd Armoured Brigade, Yola, Brigadier General John Nwoaga said the deployment was meant to “support the security operatives that are already on ground to fish out the criminals who killed innocent people.”

Though he did not give the actual number of soldiers who are now in Mubi, Nwoaga said there was nothing strange in the action. “It is the responsibility of the military to maintain law and order. Some of our men have been in Mubi for some time and recent happenings prompted the need to increase the number. We are there to secure the lives of law abiding citizens,” the commander said.

Security operatives have also arrested many people, including students, but it is not yet known, whether some have been found culpable.

Governor Murtala Nyako has condemned the killing which was carried out late at night when most of the victims were fast asleep.

Maijama’a Adamu, the Chief Press Secretary to Nyako quoted the governor as saying “the killing is condemnable and heinous. There is no justification for it and we wish to call on law abiding citizens not to take the law into their hands.

“The state government will give security forces all the support they need in carrying out investigation that will lead to the arrest of the people behind the attack,” the governor said.

For now, there is semblance of normalcy in Mubi and freedom of movement is restricted between 6am and 3pm daily, a curtailment that has negatively impacted on business and economy in the burgeon border city.