Students claim eight were allegedly killed and many others were injured when police were called to quell a protest at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim College of Education in Maiduguri on Thursday, May 27.

The students from Bama, a local government area in Borno State, were protesting against the college’s management which had accused them of misconduct on several occasions.

It was reported that the Borno State Ministry of Higher Education had directed the college should be shut down with immediate effect after the protest.

Bakura Abba Yusuf, the president of the Kashim Ibrahim College of Education Students’ Union, said the protest issues revolved around accommodation fees and available bed spaces.

The students from Bama were being temporarily accommodated at the college, Yusuf said.

The protesters blocked Kano Road, opposite the college on Thursday morning.

Students, who asked to remain anonymous, told RNI reporter Amina Abbagana that on Wednesday night when they had already gone to bed, they were woken by members of the college management and told to leave the premises.A student said: “Members of the college management forced us to leave the premises. We had to spend the night under the trees. We are students of this college. What did we do to deserve this humiliation? We came from Bama to study here and this is how the management treats us. Surely all students should be treated the same?”

A young woman student − one of the leaders of the protest − told RNI that she and other Bama students at the college had not been given permanent accommodation. Some of them had to spend nights sleeping under trees.

She claimed students from Bama had been expelled from the college’s hostels.

“We are suffering. Our rights as students have been trampled and infringed upon by lecturers and members of the management. We cannot continue being abused like this.”

Another woman student said that if the college management did not want Bama students on the campus, it should send them back home.

Superintendent Eket Okon, the police public relations officer in Maiduguri, said there were no “unruly incidences” and the students had dispersed peacefully.

The reported killings and injuries could not be confirmed.