Operatives of National Security have taken over the ‘mass shoot out and cyanide gas attack’ threat sent to the students of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) on Tuesday.

The school authorities have also beefed up security on the school premises and have stationed security personnel at various vantage points in the school including the various lecture halls.

Students have been asked to remain calm as the authorities have matters under control.

In order not to heighten the fears of students, plain-clothed security personnel were deployed to various points within the precincts of the university to guarantee the safety of the students.

Background

Fear gripped students of the University as they were contemplating on not going to lectures on Wednesday, November 21, 2018 after an anonymous person posted on Jodel (a social media application) on how he intends to carry out a cyanide attack and shootout in the various lecture halls to placate an awful deed experienced.

The post which detailed how the deed would be done warned students to wish their loved ones goodbye and not treat it as a joke.

It said ‘A lot of you are going to die in KNUST tomorrow (that was Wednesday) for all the pain you’ve caused me all these years. In our hearts we are filled with hatred for all you maggots. Why hasn’t there been a school shootout in this country? Death en mass. Now is the time to wish your loved ones goodbye. It’s too late to be sorry, we already have given you enough chances to repent. And there is no mercy for anyone. I’m going to use cyanide gas to kill all of you. We will attack in the various lecture halls. We cannot be stopped. We will not be stopped. 21-11-18 I’ll make sure you people never forget this date. Some of you deserve to die for your callous nature.’ The post ended with the hashtags ashwednesday.

It still remains unclear as to why the anonymous person intends to carry out the act but ‘he’ hints on a callous deal meted out to him.

Jodel is a social media platform which hides the identity of users so it is unclear as to who posted those threats yet students are not treating the message lightly.

On the various student platforms, they called on the appropriate authorities not to make light of the situation juxtaposing that to recent heighten events in the University.

Academic work in the University got restored to normalcy on Monday, November 19, 2018 after a violent students uprising led to the shutdown of the University for three weeks.