The heightening insecurity situation in Nasarawa State, North Central Nigeria, has now hit the citadel of learning as students of the Federal University of Lafia have come under heavy attacks by bandits and armed thugs who rape and inflict varying degrees of injury on the affected students.
Sources within the University community who pleaded strict anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the attacks, told our correspondent that for over two weeks now, students of the institution have come under the brutal and ferocious attack of rape, kidnapping and killings by bandits and thugs, reports Daily Independent.
It was reliably gathered that, since the establishment of the Federal University of Lafia in 2011, the University has witnessed an explosion of student population which cannot match the accommodation and hostel needs of her students.
To provide for the hostel needs of the students, there has been a growing student population stuck up in the inner ghettos and slums of satellite University Student villages known as Akunza, Gandu, and Burkan Kwato.
These ghettos and slums, according to sources “have long served as the hide out for criminal elements mostly bandits and thugs who have ravaged the peace and security of the University over time.”
Two years ago, the management of the University was said to have decried the nefarious and hideous activities of these bandits who regularly raided the student villages for sex, rape, kidnappings and outright killing of innocent defenceless students of the university.
“The University Management adopted far reaching security measures to curb the ugly trend of the invasion and killings of her students but without real lasting success.”
It is observed that lasting and genuine security of the students cannot be achieved without the commitment and sincere support of the indigenous host communities where the students live in and reside.
The local communities are alleged to be “collaborating with these criminal elements through some kind of providing cover and shelter for the bandits. This has been one of Nigeria’s biggest challenge of combating banditry and kidnapping in that indigenous host communities often decline both intelligence and information gathering that could had either preempt the operations of criminal elements or could had aborted their operations in outright terms.
“The safety and well-being undergraduate Students of have come under severe attack and compromise arising from the ineptitude of the indigenous host communities in partnership with the University Management to protect and defend the students.”
Our investigation revealed that, “On July 26 2025 alone, over 30 female students were raped by the bandits who mobilised and invaded the student villiages in large convoy and vehicles.
“The operation is similar to the Boko Haram episode in the Chibok and Dapchi Girls Kidnap incident. The Lafia rape is a sad reminder of the collapse of the Nigerian State that has led to the gross devaluation of life and human right abuses of the Nigerian people in the hands of bandits and terrorist.
“In the same operation, male students who resisted the invasion were brutally hacked and butchered by the bandits. By the end of the invasion, the bandits had left a trail of blood, tears and sorrows on the mind of the University community.”
The sources also told our correspondent that, “What is more worrisome is the fact that the invasion did not draw the attention of both the local and national media. It appears, the non media coverage and reportage is a deliberate strategy of conspiracy of silence by the ruling political class of the state.”
When contacted for confirmation, the Nasarawa State Police Command Spokesperson, Mr. Nansel Ramhan who was at a “meeting” has not returned the call or replied the WhatsApp message earlier sent to him as of the time of filing this report.
