• Continues exams, as Buhari, Dogara, others condemn attack

Stories from Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri, Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye and Kemi Yesufu, Abuja

Authorities of the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), yesterday, defied terrorists who attacked a mosque on campus, killing a professor and three others, by announcing the continuation of the school’s scheduled exams.
A twin bomb blasts rocked the university in the early hours, killing a professor of veterinary medicine, Prof. Aliyu Usman Mani and three others, who were at the mosque for Muslim prayers.
Speaking while receiving the Theatre Commander of “Operation  Lafiya Dole,” Major General Lucky Irabor, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Abubakar  Njodi,  said the university would not be shut, as doing so would give the attacker impetus.
He stated: “I can convince the Senate, the management and the university community to close the school to save lives, but if we do that, we are not helping because we have to give the security our maximum support and our support is not to join them in the battlefield.
“If we run away, that means there is nobody they should be fighting for. We should stay and resolve it, after all the war is about us, western education.”
The vice chancellor said the students and staff should “stand our ground so that the military will be proud that the people they are fighting for are on ground.”
He stated that the university had decided not to  close down, while assuring General Irabor: “We want to assure you, our theatre commander, the university remains open and we will continue with our examinations tomorrow.
“We suspended the exams for today (yesterday) because we want the military to come and assess what happened.”
Gen. Irabor told Prof. Njodi  that Boko Haram was frustrated.
“They have tried severally to bring sorrows and pain to the university and the rest of the communities and have failed. We, therefore, enjoin you not to be deterred. This is a clear sign that the end of Boko Haram has come.”
In a related development, Prof Njodi, while commenting on the blasts during a condolence visit by Governor Kashim Shettima also restated that the university would not be shut.
He said the university mourned the late Professor Mani, describing him as an asset to the institution.
While clarifying the casualty figure, the VC said the victims’ bodies were discovered separately.
“We lost three persons. It was earlier reported to be two, but later the body of Professor Mani was discovered, after others were taken to the hospital. That was why there were discrepancies in the figures,” he explained.
Both the police and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed the blasts, the first in the leading university in the North East since 2014 when Boko Haram stepped up attacks using suicide bombers.
Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Borno State Command, DSP Victor Isuku, said in a statement that the first suicide bomber was gunned down by a mobile policeman on sentry near the university Gate 4.
“At about 05.15 hours (5.15am), a police mobile force personnel on duty near Gate 4, at the back of the University of Maiduguri, gunned down a female suicide bomber of about 12 years old, who was trying to infiltrate the university premises, and the IEDs strapped to her body exploded killing her instantly,” he disclosed.
He said the second explosion occurred shortly at a mosque inside the university.
Head, Media and Public Relations of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Sani Datti, said rescue officials were at the scenes of the blasts but puts the statistics of the injured persons at 17.
“Two persons and two suicide bombers  are confirmed dead (total of four) at the time of response,” he said.
The explosions came barely two weeks after the military and the Department of State Security Services (DSS) warned people to be more vigilant, as some Boko Haram that fled  Sambisa Forest after it was recaptured by troops, could infiltrate towns and cities with suicide bombers.
Buhari condemns attack
President Muhammadu Buhari has, in strong terms, condemned the attack.
Buhari who said it was unjustifiable and punishable before God and the laws of the land, sent his heartfelt condolences to the university community, families of the victims as well as government and people of Borno State.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, in a statement quoted the President as saying, “this appalling attack on a revered place of worship and Ivory Tower shows that the perpetrators have no true understanding of Islam.”
He said such “despicable acts of terrorism are cowardly, criminal, unjustifiable and punishable before God Almighty and the laws of the land.”
Assuring the communities in Borno and others in the North Eastern part of the country that his administration would continue to ensure that terrorism never triumphs over peace-loving Nigerians,   Buhari reaffirmed the need for Nigerians to remain more vigilant, even as the security agencies continue to use all means at their disposal to combat the remnants of  insurgents and their sponsors.
Dogara speaks
Speaker of the House of Representatives,  Yakubu Dogara also condemned the  bomb attack, describing it as inhuman act.
According to Dogara, the attack was “the height of wickedness, barbarism, callousness and ungodliness.”
The Speaker, in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Turaki Hassan, expressed sadness that in spite of recent military feat resulting in the terrorists being dislodged from their enclave, the insurgents could penetrate university campus to carry out a bloody attack
Army condoles with varsity
Reacting to the attack, the Nigeria Army condoled with the UNIMAID.
Brig.-Gen. Victor Ezugwu, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 7 Division of the army, said, during a visit to the university: “We are here to sympathise with you on this ugly and sad incident and we want you not to be deterred in your endeavours.”
He said the seven-year-old who perpetrated the act did not know what he was doing.
“This is a boy that when you ask him to put his hand in fire, he cannot do it, let alone detonating himself with an IED.
“We want to appeal to the Muslim community not to be deterred. Same incident like this had occurred in Damboa, where Muslims were jampacked and a suicide bomber detonated his explosive.
“But I told them that this is the spirit; the Boko Haram terrorists want to scare you away. They want us to be afraid, they want us to live in fear.”