The students were woken up from sleep in their dormitory and shot dead at the College of Agriculture, Gujba, 50 kilometers south of the state capital Damaturu.
Survivors said about 30 gunmen drove into the school in three Hilux vans and four motorcycles around 1.30am.
They headed to the hostel where they assembled the students in one place and opened fire on them.
“At first we thought they were security personnel on surveillance,” a survivor told Daily Trust, adding that the gunmen were in military fatigue.
State Police Commissioner Sanusi Rufa’i confirmed that 40 corpses were recovered, and the medical director of the Sani Abacha Hospital in Damaturu, Dr Garba Fika, also said 40 bodies were deposited at the morgue.
Five other students who sustained bullet wounds were admitted and those with fractures would be referred to the Nguru hospital, Fika said.
But provost of the college Murima Maimato Gaidam, speaking to Associated Press news agency, said the number of dead could be as high as 50, adding that security forces were still recovering the bodies and that about 1,000 students had fled the campus.
Spokesman for the Special Operations Battalion in Damaturu, Captain Eli Lazarus, said they were yet to get the actual death toll.
Residents of Gujba said apart from the confirmed casualties, many victims who fled into the bush with bullet wounds might have died there.
Musa Bade, who is a staff of the college, told the BBC Hausa yesterday that the attackers wore Army uniforms and started shooting at the students in their hostels.
“They came in two Hillux vans and seven motorcycles at around 1.30 in the morning. The attackers did not talk to anybody, they just started firing and killed about 44 of our students and they have uniform like that of the Army,” he said.
“There was one of them by the door of the hostel, shooting at the students who attempted to run out from the hostel. Nobody escaped except the ones that hide in the ceiling. But there are some of them who run into bush. We did not see them till now.”
He said the whereabouts of three to four of the college staff remained unknown.
A survivor, Ibrahim Hussaini, a final-year student of the Animal Health and Production Department, told Daily Trust that they complained to the rector of their fear of possible attack following last week’s attack in Buni Yadi, just 12km away.
“He said that we shouldn’t panic and gave us N10,000 to buy ram and slaughter after Qur’anic recitation and special prayers,” he said.
“We were coming back from the reception when we saw them in Hilux vans. They asked us to rush back to hostel before they shot us. We all ran into the bush because there were sounds of gunshots shortly after we escaped.”
Wailing
Hundreds of relatives of the victims were seen at the hospital morgue in Damaturu trying to identify corpses of their loved ones. Many of them were seen wailing.
Alhaji Hassan Inusa, who was sobbing when our reporter spoke with him, said he lost a son in the attack while his other son was among the survivors.
“He told me that the assailants operated for over 3 hours uninterrupted. They slaughtered some of them while shooting many in the head,” he said.
“In all the schools attacks in Yobe the attackers go scot free and the security operatives are now narrowing their role in the crises to transporting corpses. They hardly visit the scene at the time of attack but only serve as clearing agents for the dead.”
An old parent, who was seen crying profusely, said: “I am aged, and my heir is killed, then what is the fate of my family?”
Another parent said, “I already recalled all my children that are studying in Borno and Yobe states and ordered them to return home. They need to be alive for the knowledge to be useful.”
A mother who saw the corpse of her son shouted, asking: “Do they know the pain of birth? Do they know the pain of child upbringing? I will continue to pray until wrath of God befell on them.”
There was tension at the hospital in Damaturu when a scuffle ensued between a student and a policeman. The cop was alleged to have said something to the effect that when policemen were being killed by Boko Haram, people in the area were celebrating but they were now mourning having become the victims.
A student grabbed the policeman’s shirt and started raining abuses on him. A crowd soon gathered but military men came in time and took away the policeman.
Our correspondent reports that Yobe state government truncated an academic session and sent students home towards the end of the third term of the previous session to strengthen security in schools.
This followed the attack in a secondary school in Mamudo in July where dozens of students were killed.
Two weeks ago, Education Commissioner Mohammed Lamin declared all schools opened after the long holiday, saying adequate security arrangements had been made in the schools.
‘Barbaric, heinous’
In his reaction to yesterday’s violence, Governor Ibrahim Gaidam condemned the attack, saying it was “unconscionable, heinous and barbaric.”
Speaking while on a visit to the injured students at the hospital in Damaturu, the governor said the state government will foot the medical bill of those who sustained injuries.
A statement by the governor’s spokesman Abdullahi Bego said Gaidam called on the military and other law enforcement operatives in the state to intensify surveillance and patrol.
“The governor noted that although there is increase in troop movement and military hardware deployment in the northeast, people were yet to see the kind of action on the ground that effectively nips criminal and terrorist activities in the bud,” the statement said.
“The governor has pledged to continue to support security agencies in every way possible to restore peace and security. He called for regular aerial reconnaissance and more intrusive patrols along the Maiduguri-Damaturu-Potiskum highway where many dreadful attacks have taken place in the recent past.”
Northern govs, ACF, Atiku react
Meanwhile, the Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF) has described as “horrendous and callous” the attack at the Yobe college.
The forum also commiserated with the families of the 15 persons killed in Zangang community in Kaura Local Government Area of Kaduna State, said a statement by Danladi Ndayebo, a spokesman for Niger State Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, who is chairman of the forum.
“The forum urged the security agencies to halt the senseless killing of defenceless citizens and attack on places of worship and educational facilities,” the statement said.
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) also condemned the killings. ACF spokesman Anthony Sani urged “the intelligence community and the security agents to brace up their operations in ways that can nip such wicked acts in the bud as well as prevent future occurrences.”
He also urged the attackers “to lay down the arms and embrace peaceful means of resolving any perceived grievances and the ensuing conflict in the interest of core values of humanity is long overdue.”
Meanwhile, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has described the Yobe incident as “senseless and tragic,” saying it casts a “horrible image” on the events making the 53rd National Day Anniversary.
“As a father, I am deeply saddened by these senseless murders. These were young Nigerians studying agriculture with a goal of helping to feed our nation,” Atiku said, according to a statement by his media office.
“We must urgently review our strategy for confronting these cowards. The murders at the Gujba College of Agriculture are further proof we need to rethink how we provide security for our nation.”
“We must organise ourselves better to provide dignity and security for Nigeria. To defeat terror we must use much more potent, unbeatable weapons: democracy, education and opportunity,” he added.
