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UNIMAID student killed in beauty pageant clash

From Abdullahi Bego, in Maiduguri

The University of Maiduguri was closed down temporarily yesterday following a student crisis on Saturday night in which one student died in circumstances described as not caused by mob attack and several people sustained various degrees of injuries.

The crisis began around 11p.m. on Saturday when a call to prayer was made at the Ummah mosque of the university to mobilise Muslim students to stop a "nudity parade" alleged to be going on within the campus at a pageant organised by the National Association of Students of English Language and Literature (NASELL).

The group of Muslim students were said to have stormed the venue of the pageant using sticks and pipes to disrupt the event. A fracas soon followed in which several students sustained injuries, many seriously and were taken to various government and private hospitals within Maiduguri.

The situation deteriorated further, Daily Trust learnt, when a group of Christian students also staged what appeared to be a reprisal attack, against the Ummah mosque in the early hours of Sunday as Muslims said their morning prayers.

Speaking to Daily Trust, the vice chancellor of the university, Professor J.D. Amin, said that the causes of the incident were still being investigated but that "the allegation was that some group of Muslim students stormed a gala nite organised by English students and caused some bodily injuries to some of them."

The vice chancellor added that an emergency meeting of the committee of deans and provosts of the institution decided to close the university "to forestall further loss of life and property," adding that the university might reopen after the Ramadan fast so that authorities will use the break "to look into the matter and possibly apportion blame and maybe punish the culprits."

Professor J.D. Amin also explained that the student who died, one Farouk Zubair, did not die because he was beaten or killed by the mob but that the pandemonium that ensued as the crisis broke probably aggravated his health condition (as a sickler) and he died as he was taken to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH).

Daily Trust also learnt from other sources that the deceased was sleeping in his room when the crisis broke out and in his attempt to escape the maze of confusion when he woke up from sleep, he collapsed and then died later when taken to hospital.

When Daily Trust visited the university yesterday, thousands of students were seen hurriedly leaving campus carrying with them their belongings even as many of them described the crisis as unfortunate and uncalled for at a time when the students were gearing up for their end-of-semester examinations.

In a chat with Daily Trust the UNIMAID dean of student affairs, Dr. Garba Ibrahim, said that "elements within the Muslim Students Society (MSS)" were responsible for igniting the fracas even as a reaction by "some elements" within the Christian community led to a worsening of the situation.

The dean of student affairs whose office regulates the activities of student associations also told Daily Trust, that the Muslim students were among the groups of students who had complained to his office that NASELL was planning to stage a beauty pageant during its nite and that such should not be allowed, especially during Ramadan, and because it was banned by the university.

Following the complaints and the posting of bills by NASELL on walls in the university indicating that such a beauty pageant was planned, the student affairs office stopped the holding of the nite and asked NASELL to re-apply for staging its nite "and present a programme of activities that did not include things that are obnoxious to the university administration."

NASELL, according to Dr. Garba, complied with the directives and submitted a new letter of application for permission to stage a nite without a beauty pageant on October 31, 2003. The letter was approved and the nite was slated for Saturday, November 1, 2003 after it was earlier cancelled on Thursday based on the allegation of plans to hold the beauty pageant.

The dean said that monitors placed at the venue did not report that a beauty pageant was taking place although "elements" within the Muslim students invaded the place, alleging that the pageant was going on.

Although efforts to get the Muslim Students Association (MSS) president failed, some Muslim students said that the beauty show did indeed take place although the gates to the venue were closed to persons without stipulated identification.

As the situation gradually normalised at UNIMAID yesterday evening, a detachment of mobile and regular policemen were deployed in and around the university campus to maintain law and order and prevent any deterioration in the situation.

Daily Trust could not confirm whether any arrests were made by the police so far and there were no replies from the office of the police commissioner, Mr. Bashiru Azzez and his deputy, Alhaji Atiku Yusuf, when our correspondent telephoned on Sunday.

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