2 minors shot, 11 arrested as students clash over girlfriends in Niger state

Minna- There was pandemonium in Suleja town, headquarters of Suleja local government of Niger state as some students of a secondary school clashed with another rival group in the town over girlfriends.

It is not yet clear whether the other rival group are also from another institution within the town.

However, our Correspondent gathered that the clash occured between students of one Model school in Chaichainiya and other youths from the same area.

The “lover boy”, Umar Idris of SSS 3, who was said to be the leader of the gang from the model secondary school, had led his gang armed with dangerous weapons to attack his local rivals within the same community.

During the clash over the weekend, the dangerous weapons were freely used by the two warring groups.

Police and local vigilantes were immediately drafted to the area to calm down the situation before escalating into full-blown violence.

Gunshots and teargas were fired to scare the warring groups and this led to pandemonium in the area as people hurriedly closed their shops while residents quickly went into hiding.

However, two minors aged between 10 and 11 were not as lucky as they were hit by the gunshots and were immediately rushed to Suleja General hospital for treatment.

The security succeeded in bringing normalcy to the area and after combing the community, six suspects were initially arrested but the number have risen to eleven as of the time of filing this report.

Niger state Police command through its Spokesman, Superintendent of Police, Wasiu Abiodun confirmed the incident adding that eleven suspects are now in their custody helping in further investigation.

In a statement, police said,”on 6/3/2025 at about 11 pm, reports were received that youths and some secondary school students were fighting at Chaichainiya area of Kaduna road over issues of lovers led by one Umar Idris of the same area

“It was reported that during the incident, gunshots were heard from different directions, which hit two victims on their laps; one Nura and Imrana, both 10 and 11 years respectively.

“However, during the Police covert operation, eleven suspects including the said Umar Idris were arrested and are under Police investigation.

“A preliminary investigation revealed that a personnel of a sister’s security agency was responsible for the shooting that led to the gunshot injuries of the two victims,” the police declared.

He said, further steps are being taken to get to the root of the matter and bring those involved to book.