Five gunmen suspected to be cultists have shot dead a second year student of the Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin.

The Punch correspondent gathered on Wednesday that the assailants were said to have run away after killing the student, whose name had yet to be ascertained. Some of the students of the institution, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they suspected the victim to be a member of a rival cult group.

Eyewitnesses, who requested not to be named, said at about 7.30pm on Monday, while the workers had closed for the day, one of the assailants shot the student from a far distance without getting the desired result. The assailants were said to have become enraged, chased and grabbed their victim and shot him many times in the head before they fled.

The sources said the school's security personnel quickly alerted the police. A source said, "The police raced to the scene of the incident, took and deposited the remains of the student at the mortuary of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital.

The institution's Registrar, Mr. Moses Salami confirmed the killing. He added that the police and operatives of the Department of the State Services had been patrolling the campus since after the incident. Salami said, "It is true that on Monday, around 7.30pm, we learnt that one ND2 student was shot dead, and the police was immediately alerted.

"They arrived at the scene of the incident and took his corpse away to UITH. Since then, the security agencies have been coming to our polytechnic to investigate the incident." The state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ajayi Okasanmi, also confirmed the killing of the student.

He said, "I heard that a student was killed at Kwara State Polytechnic on Monday." Meanwhile, a man was found beheaded in a bush at Oke-Odo, in Tanke, Ilorin.

The discovery of the corpse was said to have angered the community and some commercial motorcyclists in the area. Okasanmi, in a telephone interview with The Punch correspondent, however, said the police had commenced investigation into the death.

He said, "We heard information a few days ago that an okada rider (motorcyclist) was killed in Oke-Odo, Tanke. The suspect is the person the okada man was carrying. Other okada riders in the area wanted to lynch the passenger on the allegation that he killed the victim, but our men got to the scene on time and rescued the suspect. We are still investigating the incident."