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The glamorous lovers’ day celebration on Monday turned bloody at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) when gunmen killed two students. Daily Sun gathered that the clash was between two rival cult groups, namely, Black Axe and the Buccaneers,’ over a female student allegedly snatched by the Capone of the Black Axe for Valentine celebration.

The action of the Capone , the source said did not go down well with the other group leading to the clash.
A student who witnessed the shooting said besides the two cult members who were shot dead, about four others sustained injuries and were ferried out of the campus by their leaders to shield their identity.

The sources said the cult members who carried out the attack were not UNILAG students but members from another campus, adding that the attack was carried out in a commando style with sporadic shooting.
An undergraduate student of English Department told Daily Sun that the Buccaneers’ group attacked the Black Axe members while another student returning from the Mosque said those who carried out the killing were not from UNILAG because they did not cover their faces.

It was learnt that as soon the shooting started, students scampered for safety while others took cover behind the wall and under cars packed around, while others ran into the halls to avoid being hit by stray bullets. 
A senior lecturer who confirmed the killings said the university management had met to curtail any reprisal attack while security personnel had taken over the investigation of the deadly cult clash.
When Daily Sun visited the troubled institution yesterday, there was uneasy calm, as most staff and students rebuffed efforts made by the reporters to get their comments.

However, one of the students who resides at Sodeinde Hall, said there was sporadic gunshots outside the premises which caused panic everywhere. 
It was gathered that the crisis, which erupted when the students were at the peak of lovers’ day celebration, created stampede on the campus as people ran for safety.

One of the victims of the attack reportedly ran into Sodeinde Hall for help, from where he was taken to the hospital.
Although the Hall Master of Sodeinde Hall declined comments on the issue, one of the officials, who wouldn’t want his name published, said the attack could not be linked to any cult group. He said there was increasing speculation that the perpetrators of the attack could be fighting for love. Efforts made by Daily Sun our reporter to ascertain the identities of the victims were unsuccessful.
The news bulletin of the university, Information Flash (ISSN 08195540) also captured the incident, while assuring the staff and students of the university of adequate security.

“The attention of the universities authorities has been drawn to the incident which occurred in one of the Halls of Residence in the late hours of Monday, February 14, 2011 where two persons were reportedly injured in fracas. The university management has commenced investigation into the unusual incident, in particular at a time when preparation for the first semester examinations due to commence on February 21, 2011 are in top gear. Security has been intensified to ensure safety of life and property on campus. Law enforcement agents have been involved to assist the university in this respect,” it said. 
Daily Sun learnt that students are leaving the campus because of the fear of reprisal attack while some parents called their wards on phone to return home until the situation is brought under control. 

The Deputy Registrar Information of UNILAG, Mr. Dare Adebisi refused to pick his calls or replied to text message sent to his phone.
When the Lagos Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Samuel Jinadu (DSP) was called thrice, he promised to contact the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in the area and did not call back as at the press time....

Team Goodluck Recants:

The presidency yesterday distanced President Goodluck Jonathan from reports that he had called governors of certain states ‘rascals’ when he said “the southwest is too important to be left in the hands of rascals”.

Presidential spokesman, Ima Niboro, said that “at no time did the president ascribe the ‘rascal’ he mentioned to anyone.

“Please note that the president didn’t call any names when he said the southwest is too important to be left in the hands of rascals,” he said. “So anyone who wants to appropriate the name to himself is welcome to do so.”

Mr. Jonathan had, on Tuesday, while flagging off his presidential campaign in the southwest geo-political zone in Ibadan, made comments about the PDP’s election chances in the southwest.

“We must take it over from them,” he said. “The ruling party must take over Lagos. We must also take over Osun and Ekiti states.”

Team Fashola Reply:

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, yesterday, expressed disappointment with the statements credited to President Goodluck Jonathan during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) campaign in Ibadan, Oyo State. Mr Jonathan had reportedly said: “We (PDP) must take over all the States in the Southwest. The zone is too important to be left in the hands of rascals.” Describing Mr Jonathan’s statements as one that is not worth coming from a president, Mr Fashola, speaking to journalists at the presidential wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, said that leaders seeking elective offices in Nigeria should refrain from using words that are offensive. “The office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a very high office and I don’t think that the kind of language coming from the PDP presidential candidate is presidential,” he said. “But Lagosians will have to make the determination for we are beginning to see clearly the pattern of the candidacy of the PDP candidate who seeks to lead this country to poverty, inefficiency and to insecurity.” “But having said that, I think that I have asked myself whether the president is more concerned about who is governor of Lagos or becoming president. I think that if the PDP wants to swap candidates for the governorship of Lagos I will be ready to face him, because his candidate is not talking about what he wants to do in Lagos.

And I will leave our own presidential candidate, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to respond to the president on issues that are genuine to Nigerians; why the federal roads in Lagos have not been fixed, why Lagosians do not have electricity, why Lagosians have to pay all the cost of their own security in spite of the enormous votes every year by the federal government on security,” added the governor.

 The PDP versus the ACN Explaining that elections are meant to be won by men of integrity, Mr Fashola urged Nigerians not to vote based on sentiments, adding that he made to the office of the governor based on upright manifestos of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). “Elections cannot be won by resulting to derogatory language, by claiming luck,” he said. “Elections require those who seek elective office to focus on the people over whom they plan to exercise authority and to communicate to them in a very clear and practical manner how you intend to improve their lot.

 Look, I think that the PDP led federal government has a lot of questions to answer in Lagos and it is interesting that these remarks are being made from outside Lagos. So I hope that when they come here, they will be able to call us rascals again; and if we are rascals, it means that some of the other governors he has been presiding over is a republic of rascals.”

Comparing the achievements of the ACN with those of the PDP in the state, the governor said that the later failed in the delivery of the dividends of democracy. “They spent ten years trying to build a 400m bridge in Otta; and on the day that they finally came to open that bridge, instead of apologizing to Lagosians, they were fighting themselves about who was to cut the tape,” he said. “Meanwhile the road that leads to the bridge is not finished. We built Okota link bridge in 18months and it is longer than that bridge over which they were fighting. So that is what we expect them to come and talk about. Apapa-Oshodi-Oworonshoki Expressway is their road and it is pothole ridden, the road to the biggest airport in this country. This is a national embarrassment.”

Ribadu reacts Also reacting to the Mr Jonathan’s comments, the Nuhu Ribadu Campaign Organisation described the statements as “unbecoming of a president” and “one that smacks of desperation.” In a statement signed by Ibrahim Modibbo, the Director of Media and Communications, the organisation said that Mr Jonathan had “finally shown Nigerians how desperate he is to remain in power by resorting to name calling and character assassination instead of addressing issues that bother on the welfare of Nigerians and the people of the south west in particular.”

 “We recognise the president’s dilemma,” the statement said. “Of course he knows that both he and his fellow PDP governors in the south west have no achievements to brandish. They have no alternative to proffer to the positive changes being witnessed by the people in Lagos, Ekiti and Osun. It is however unbecoming of the president that in his frustration at the failure of him and his party to provide good governance to the people of the region and all Nigerians, he would resort to name calling.”