Thunderous sounds suspected to be from bomb explosions and continuous shooting around the University of Maiduguri scared students and staff on campus all Friday night. Many of the students and staff stayed awake till dawn.
The explosion, according to PREMIUM TIMES checks, started at about 2 a.m.
Some students said the sounds woke them up, while those that were awake and reading for the ongoing second semester exams said they were terrified.
A 200-level student of the University, Halima Abdul, told PREMIUM TIMES on phone that “we don’t know from where the explosion and shooting occurred and we could not even run because it is dark and dangerous to do so. It happened around 2 a.m.; I was not asleep then”.
Halima said the university’s Dean of Students Affairs visited them in the hostel in the early hours of Saturday to assure them of safety, even as he warned of dangers in trying to run from the school.
A security official who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES but asked not to be named because it was not his role to speak to the press said the shooting had nothing to do with the university. He said the shooting occurred in two villages about 12km away from university campus.
