Nasarawa: Over 30 female varsity students raped by bandits during attack 

The worsening security situation in Nasarawa State has reached a disturbing new level after a large convoy of heavily armed bandits invaded the Federal University of Lafia, leaving behind a devastating trail of rape, assault, and bloodshed.

Sources within the University community who doesn’t want to be quoted, told Daily Independent that for over two weeks now, students of the institution have come under the vicious  attack of rape, abduction and killings by bandits and thugs.

Since the establishment of the Federal University of Lafia in 2011, the institution, this medium understand, has witnessed an explosion of student population which cannot match the accommodation and hostel needs of her student.

The situation, has pushed student population to 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 institution was said to have raised alarm over the nefarious and hideous activities of these bandits who regularly attacked 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, according to Daily Independent, 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.”

Investigation by the paper revealed that, “On the 26th of July 2025 alone, over 30 female students were raped by the bandits who mobilized and invaded the student villages 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.”

Meanwhile, police in Nasarawa state is yet to issue an official statement in respect to the development.

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