There was pandemonium at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, when some yet-to-be-identified assailants, suspected to be herdsmen, attacked some students of the institution and inflicted varying degrees of injuries on an unconfirmed number of students.
It was gathered that the victims, mostly in their first year, were said to be on their way to a night lesson inside the school on Sunday when they were attacked by the assailants.
One of the victims, a male, was said to be badly injured and was rushed to the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital, Amaku.
He reportedly lost some fingers while trying to defend himself from the hoodlums and was quickly rushed to the hospital.
The mother of the victim, in her post via WhatsApp, said “My son’s three fingers cut off, twin sister wounded.”
A source in the institution added that the incident happened around 9pm along Ifite Road, adding, “That axis they took is a dangerous, lonely path, and being new students, they were naive to have not known that moving through a lonely path, particularly at night, can be dangerous.
“One of the victims was walking through that path with the sister, innocently. As soon as they saw the attackers, they started running. But the boy was not lucky enough to outrun them.
“It was an alarm from the sister that drew the attention of those who rescued him and took him to the hospital before the security team was alerted.”
Some officials from the university were said to have visited the victims at the hospital on Monday morning.
According to the source, the officials included Dean of Student Affairs, Prof. Kingsley Ubaoji, Chief Security Officer, Ken Chukwura, Director of JUPEB, Prof. C. Akunne, Sub-Dean of Student Affairs, Dr. Anthony Apiti, and representative of the PRO’s office, Bonny Nkwuaku.
The acting Director, Information and Public Relations/Protocol of the institution, Louis Njelita, confirmed the development when contacted on Monday.
“Yes, there was an attack, and the chief security officer has been communicated on that, and I believe he has taken some actions,” Njelita added.
The PUNCH