By Ummi Ismaeel,
Minna
Suspected armed robbers in the early hours of Monday raided one privately developed hostels of the state-owned Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University (IBBU), Lapai Niger State.
The attack on the 25-room facility accommodating both male and female students of the institution, according to an eyewitness occurred between 12 midnight and 2am, as the hoodlums had field day ransacking through all the rooms.
Some of the robbers were said to have manned the entrance gate into the compound while other gang members moved from one room to another, ransacking belongings of the students and dispossessing them of their valuables.
The criminals, armed with sophisticated weapons, it was gathered, had locked up the students in one of the rooms before carrying out the operations, which lasted for about two hours uninterrupted.
All the students were called out one after another to lead the criminals into his or her room where they were also ordered at gun point to explain contents of their bags/luggage after being forced to identify individuals’ belongings.
All the cell phones, laptop computers, cash and other valuable items belonging to the students were then taken away by the robbers who also demanded jewelries and expensive clothing materials from the female students.
Some of the female students who could not provide any of the items demanded by the intruders or had delayed in responding to orders were reportedly beating by the criminals.
One of the victims who said she suffered shock experiencing such attack for the first time said, “They operated between 12 midnight and 2am before they left the same way they came. It was after the robbers had finished operating that the police came”.
On the incident, one of the Information Managers of the university, Mr. Baba Akote, said that the institution was yet to be officially informed of the attack on the students, ‘because it happened off-campus’.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Niger State Command, DSP Muhammad Abubakar Dan-Inna, confirmed the attack on the students.
Muhammad confirmed on phone that the incident happened outside the university campus.
He said, “We are already investigating the matter. The robbers would be apprehended and brought to justice”.