•Gunmen on rampage
Suspected bandits last night struck at the Kogi State University of Science and Technology Osara and abducted scores of students.
According to an eye witness account, the bandits in their large numbers entered the school through the bush path and started shooting sporadically into the school premises, reports Daily Sun.
The school local security were said to have displayed gallantry as they engaged the hoodlums in gun duel that lasted for over 30 minutes.
According to some students who escaped by the whiskers, the hoodlums invaded the school around 9pm and went straight to lecture halls where the students were having tutorials preparatory for their upcoming first semester exams.
The students who spoke to our correspondent on anonymity said, the number of abducted students would have been less, if the management had listened to plea of students to open the mini gate that leads into the main town.
They lamented that the students were left with the only main gate to escape and with the melee and confusion, many students were caught napping.
The witness added that when the shoot out subsided, unspecified numbers of students could not be readily accounted for, but said no fewer than 57 were abducted, while one student sustained gun shot wounds.
Meanwhile, the police and other security agencies have been mobilised to the school and the community.
Confirming the incident, the vice chancellor, Professor Abdulraman Asipita, said the situation was under control.
Efforts to reach Police Public Relations Officer, SP William Aya, proved abortive.
