Police Sent to Nigeria's University After 8 Students Killed by Cultists

LAGOS, Sep 4, 2001 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The Nigerian authority has deployed the police into a university in Nigeria's southern Enugu state after at least eight students of the university have been killed by cultists in the last three months, local media reported on Tuesday.

The situation in the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) has become tense following clashes between rival cults leading to the death of the affected students, Nigerian Vanguard daily reported.

Some lecturers in the university, including dean of the faculty of law Obi Ogene, were also attacked by the cultists although none of the teachers had been reported dead.

Reacting to the development, the Enugu state government has directed the police to keep order in ESUT, saying that the government must live up to its duty of protecting lives and property in the state.

State governor Chimaroke Nnamani expressed regrets in a statement that the cult youths had "decided to act mindlessly, leaving so much fear among parents, guardians and members of the society".

Nnamani condemned the spate of killings by cult gangs, saying: "When people are expected to express themselves freely and with the highest exhibition of decency, some have degenerated to brutish handling of fellow human beings as if we have returned to the Hobbesian era of primitivity."
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Cult practice, which was once a common scene in universities and colleges as well as middle schools across Nigeria, has been reviving and caused many bloody clashes on the campuses since earlier this year.
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In order to crash down the secret cults in Nigeria, the government has been launching a series of anti-cult campaigns.
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The present administration of President Obasanjo has abolished all cult activities in universities and schools nationwide since inaugurating in May 1999, warning that anyone caught in secret cult practice would be dealt with the full force of law.
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