As law enforcement agencies report rampant cases of armed robbery, rape, prostitution in most universities in Middle Belt

Things have really gone awry in most universities in the Middle Belt of Nigeria.

Reports from the citadels of learning are really sickening. Indeed, what is going on in the campuses and the shameful crime rate of the students outside are not in tandem with the plans and expectations of those who set up the universities. Lesbianism, gangland (organised crimes), rape, drug abuse, cultism, robbery, prostitution, fraud, sexual harassment and other crimes of the larger society, have regrouped in the ivory tower with a shocking ferocity.For three years, Austin Ikechukwu, a 300 level student of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, led a gang of notorious armed robbers without detection. He added burglary to his record to enhance his status. But he ran out of luck when police made a sudden swift raid on him and his gang and arrested them for alleged cases of burglary. During investigations, the police further discovered other nefarious activities of the gang such as rape and murder. Before it eventually blossomed into a big-time crime venture, it started in a small way when as off-campus students, Austin and his gang would wait patiently for other students to leave for school before raiding their rooms to steal valuables like laptops, cash and handsets. Few months ago, Shuaibu Bala, a 24-year-old student of the same university was murdered in cold blood by a fellow student. The incident occurred in the Maitumbi area of Minna where the deceased was holding out for his brother, Abubakar Yinusa, in his laundry shop. Yinusa had bought used handset (believed to have been stolen) from Yahaya Aliu at N1800. He had paid N1000 with the promise that the balance would be paid later. But while Yinusa was out of his business premises, Yahaya in company of another friend named “Morocco” stormed his shop and violently stabbed Shuaibu with a dagger for daring to contest their desire to go away with Yinusa’s electric iron in lieu of the N1000 debt.
Upon investigations, it was discovered that Yahaya Aliu is the son of an Inspector in the command. He has since been cooling his heels at the state CID in Minna pending investigations and possible prosecution. Some female students rent rooms outside the campus on a permanent basis. When they have “customers”, they simply take them there and exchange sex for money. Others turn their rented apartments into sex nest by locating them near a brothel. There are also student prostitutes, those who rent rooms in brothels and sit in front of them when night falls.
Female students charged for prostitution
Recently, no fewer than 16 of them were arrested in Minna and its environs by a combined team of policemen and operatives of Hisbah group as part of continued onslaught on prostitutes, prostitution and other crime-related activities being reported in some parts of Niger State in recent times. They were arraigned before Senior Magistrate Court 5 for engaging in prostitution which is a prohibited business in the state.
Men of the Nigeria Police Force and the Hisbah group of the state liquor licensing board were directed to embark on the raid of identified spots where prostitution was being reported. As a result of the report received by the Police, men of the Liquor Board were co-opted by the police to embark on the raid of brothels where the activities were rampant, especially brothels along Shango, Chanchaga, Sauka Khahuta, Tunga and behind Abdulsalam Garage, leading to the arrests of the 16 sex workers. It was discovered that almost all those arrested are students of the Federal University of Technology, Minna.
There was, however, a mild drama when the students were arraigned before Senior Magistrate Court 5, for engaging in prostitution, contrary to the laws of Niger State. The students broke down in tears when it was clear they were to be tried by a female Magistrate, Hajia Zainab Gani.
When the charges were read and the Magistrate asked them to show cause why they should not be committed to prison, many of them were apologetic. “We are very sorry. We would not engage in this offence again. We are begging you to have mercy on us. Madam, we promise not to do it again. We are very sorry. We have learnt our lessons,” they pleaded remorsefully. They were convicted with an option of fine ranging between N2000 and N10, 000 each.
Incensed by the story of the student prostitutes, Mrs. Iyabo Obafemi, widow and landlady of MQ (Millionaires’ Quarters) along Mopa Road, Bosso, Minna, advised parents to be watchful of what their wards and children in institutions of higher learning are doing. According to her, some of the students when rusticated would not even return home to their parents.
 Burglary and armed robbery
In Niger State, cases of burglary are mostly traced to students of the university. The Police recently arrested six students of FUT, Minna, whose ages range between 23 and 31 believed to be the brains behind incessant burglary, housebreaking and theft of money and other valuables belonging to fellow students.
The suspects identified as Aliyu Abdullahi, Jamilu Ibrahim, Mohammed Mustapha, Ibrahim Mohammed, Sanusi Abdullahi and Mohammed Abdullahi were paraded. Oguche Richard Adamu, image-maker of the Command said the suspects were in the habit of breaking into the rooms of fellow students.
“They specialise in house-breaking and theft. They are the ones terrorising Bosso Local Government Area of the state while most of their victims are FUT fellow students,” he told journalists. “They broke into their houses while they were away for lectures and took away their money, handsets, computers, lap-tops, among other personal effects of the students. We arrested them based on a tip-off and they have also confessed to the crime.” He, however, disclosed that before the arrests of the suspects, they were said to have sold the stolen items, while the Police are now on the trail of the receiver.
Things are really upside down in most universities across the Middle Belt. In the last few years, law and order have deteriorated considerably and things seem to be heading to a crisis point. As it is, students now abandon their studies in their universities to go to areas they are not known, for what they call operation.
Kilometres away from Ilorin, some UNILORIN students went on a robbery. The recently  transferred Commissioner of Police, Mbu Joseph Mbu, said that the command intercepted a Toyota Camry car and recovered two AK-47 rifles and 60 rounds of ammunition. Four of the suspects, according to him, are from University of Ilorin, UNILORIN.
The UNILORIN may not have the reputation of being notorious for crimes committed within the precincts of the campus, but the number of criminals from its student population outside the campus appears to be swelling. For instance, seven suspected cultists allegedly involved in series of recent armed robbery attacks on students’ community at Tanke Area, Ilorin, are now in court. The suspected cultists, armed with dangerous weapons, were said to have attacked some students residing at Oke-Odo Area of Tanke, Ilorin, and dispossessed them of their valuables.
The cultists allegedly snatched 28 GSM handsets and five laptops from their victims at gunpoint. The accused, Adedoyin Kehinde, 22 of Oresowapo Filling Station Area; Mohammed Gani, 20 of No. 15, Ile Oro Compound and Salau Rasaq, 22 of Aperan Way, all of Omu-Aran, and Amosun Sherif Ortega, 24 of Tipper Garage Area; Adeyeye Sakin, 24 of Agbede Area, Polytechnic Gate; Segun Ojo, 20 of Tanke Area and Ayo Taiwo, 23 of Ara village, all in Ilorin, were arraigned on a three-count charge of being members of secret cult, criminal conspiracy and armed robbery.
The long arm of the law caught up with them when on May 7, Adedoyin, Mohammed and Rasaq, (first, second and third accused) were allegedly intercepted and arrested inside a commercial taxi cab along Oro/Omu-Aran Road by Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) operatives. When a search was conducted on them, two locally made pistols, a live cartridge, a battle-axe, a UTC knife, two school bags and 15 GSM handsets suspected to have been stolen, were allegedly recovered from them.
According to the police, on interrogation the three accused confessed to belonging to a seven-man armed robbery gang terrorizing students’ residence at Oke-Odo Area, Tanke, Ilorin. They also revealed the identities of four other members as Amosun, Adeyeye, Ojo and Taiwo (fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh accused respectively). Consequently, the four accused were arrested and when search warrants were executed on their houses, a UTC knife, two toy guns, three GSM handsets and a Stanbic Bank ATM card belonging to one Juliet Afubesor were recovered. The seven suspects allegedly confessed to several robberies carried out in Tanke Area and revealed how their loots, which were mainly handsets and computer laptops, were shared after each operation.
SARS operatives revealed that the accused, armed with locally-made pistols, battle-axe and knife, attacked some students’ residence at Bobby Villa Hostel in Bubu Area of Oke-Odo, Tanke, Ilorin, on May 2 and dispossessed them of 12 different GSM handsets and three HP Laptop computers all valued at N550, 000 at gunpoint.
The FIR also revealed that the first three accused came from Omu-Aran, Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State, for the purpose of robbery and were accommodated in the house of Amosun (fourth accused), at Tipper Garage Area of Tanke, Ilorin, from where they went for their operations. Three of the accused are said to be members of the Black Axe, a campus secret cult and the axe recovered from them is a symbol and a weapon of the secret society.
Rape, cultism and murder
There are also reported cases of rape in UNILORIN. Sometimes this year at the off-campus area of the student’s dormitory at Agbo Oba area of Ilorin, a 20-year-old student was raped by cultists. The lady, a 200 level student of the History Department was in her home at Agbo-Oba, with one of her friends when she heard a knock on the door. Two boys walked in, brandishing guns and ordered the two ladies to “cooperate” or they would be killed.
One of the cultists told the victim that for refusing his love advance he had decided to rape her with his friend. The cultists told the other girl who is also a student of the same department to lie face down. The source revealed that the cultists identified themselves as members of the Eiye Confraternity. The two of them pounced on the lady, gagged and stripped her naked, soaked the other girl’s dress in water and raped their target all night in the presence of her friend.
As the grey streak of dawn of the following day appeared on the horizon, they locked the two girls in and vanished into thin air. It was a student next door who heard muffled sounds emanating from their room that forced the door open with the help of other students. The victim bled profusely after the act and later fainted. She was treated by a nurse who works at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital.
Kogi State University, Anyigba, established in 2000 is, no doubt, one of the best state universities in the country in terms of academic performance and aesthetic beauty. However, crimes like rape, cultism and robberies have also found their way there. These shameful acts were said to have crept into the university because of the increasing population and the infiltration of big time politicians into the activities of the students’ union.
On one of the nights, in 2012, a group of students held fellow students preparing for exams to ransom. In the process, a student of Economics, who came to write his carry-over exam in 2012, after graduation, was hacked to death in such a gruesome manner that shook the university community. Before they could recover from the shock, members of a secret cult in the campus murdered one Nelson, a popular 300 level Economic student, also known as Nesty of the popular Star Boys musical group in the institution. He was said to be preparing for the second semester exams when he was hacked down by suspected cult members in March this year.
Two months later in May, this year, the Kogi State police command moved in decisively and arrested nine students suspected to have participated in a robbery attack. Among them was one Rumba Menebe, a 400 level student and son of a professor in the institution who was allegedly killed by the police during an exchange of gunfire. One of the suspects, Ugochukwu Raphael, a 100 level student from Anambra State told newsmen that he and his colleagues were actually members of a cult group called ‘Eiye’ and that the group was ‘broke’ hence they decided to rob guests at a hotel close to their campus  in Ayingba. Police Commissioner, Saidu Madawaki, said his men recovered some dangerous weapons from the student gang including charms, weeds suspected to be Indian hemp and foreign currency, among others.
On the 27th day of last September, some armed robbers invaded a first generation bank at Ajaokuta where they used an improvised explosive device to blow up the door before gaining entry. In the skirmish that ensued, a police constable, Samuel Olaiya, was shot dead. A student of the Kogi State University, Ayingba, now at large was said to be the brain behind the robbery incident.
Back to the campus, four students who were on a pleasure ride in an SUV car belonging to the father of one of them stopped to give one of the girls on the campus a ride to a department some few metres away. The student whose father owns the car was in the trunk of the car. The female student excitedly climbed into the car. The student driver started the engine and zoomed off. He, however, made a detour and headed straight to an uncompleted building where she was ordered to disembark. She complied. Then one of them led her into one of the rooms and had his turn raping her before inviting others. Thereafter she was left to find her way out of the building.
No fewer than 12 students are now standing trial in various law courts in the state on charges related to cult activities. In February this year, some undergraduates were said to have invaded the female hostel of the Benue State University (BSU), Makurdi at about 10 pm, beat up and raped some students before carting away their belongings.
This development seems to be a recurring one in the institution as a female student was alleged to have been raped earlier by some boys while on her way back from a lecture and heading to the hostel in the night. The young female student was said to be returning from a classroom to a block close to the temporary convocation ground where she had gone to read. Suddenly, it began to rain. She quickly took shelter in another class. The presence of four boys she met inside the classroom gave her a sense of security. She was wrong. As the intensity of the rain increased, the boys suddenly swooped on her and took their turns in raping her.
Though she cried out for help, the pit-pat sound of the heavy rain, coupled with the distance of the classroom from the hostels, made it impossible for anyone to hear her agonizing cry. On discovering that she was unconscious, the boys took to their heels, leaving her to her fate. She was, however, rescued by roving security men on the campus who rushed her to the university’s clinic. Unable to withstand the stigma, she dropped out of the university.
Some days later some unknown male students invaded the female hostel one night, raped female students and made away with their valuables including handsets, iPads and money. Piqued by such consistent attacks on them, female students of the institution were said to have filed out and marched to the Vice Chancellor’s office in protest. A 100 level female student from the Department of Psychology was said to have been shot on campus by unknown gunmen, after and her iPad, phones and money were snatched but in a press statement issued by the Public Relations Officer, Mr Tser Vanger, the institution denied any such incident, including the one of rape and attacks on the campus describing the reports as mischievous. [to be continued next week]

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