A three-hundred-level student of the Department of Geography, Federal University, Gashua in Yobe State, has been killed in a fire incident at the female hostel of the school in Bade Local Government Area of the state.
The Executive Secretary of the Yobe State Emergency Management Agency, Mohammed Goje, confirmed the incident to Channels Television via telephone.
One of the students who spoke to Channels Television on an anonymous condition said the inferno started around 1 pm on Saturday, forcing the students to run for their lives; others were being evacuated to the specialist hospital in Gashua for medical attention.
The cause of the fire incident is still sketchy, but some students suspect a cooking gas might have caused it.
An amateur video showed the school’s vice chancellor, Professor Maimuna Wazir, consoling one of the students who narrowly escaped the fire incident.
The incident happened exactly one month after a similar one razed down a female hostel at Yobe State University in Damaturu, the state capital.
Meanwhile, the management of the school has directed the closure of academic activities in the wake of the most recent inferno.
The school’s registrar Abubakar Mamud said this in a statement where he quoted the vice-chancellor of the school as asking students to vacate the varsity’s premises.
“The vice-chancellor and chairman of the senate has directed for the immediate closure of the university due to escalating students’ unrest on campus,” he said.
According to him, the fire ripped through hundreds of rooms in the female hostel, accommodating several students.
“A female hostel of the Federal University Gashua, Yobe State was gutted by fire on Saturday, 23rd March 2024 destroying a complete block of 29 rooms accommodating about 301 students,” the Saturday statement read.