Family members gather to identify the bodies of students killed in an attack by Islamist extremist at Yobe State College of Agriculture in Gujba, Nigeria, Sept 29, 2013. Suspected Islamic extremists attacked the college early Sunday. They shot students asleep in dormitories and torched classrooms, leaving at least 40 students dead. [Photo/icpress]

Speaking in a televised media chat in Abuja, the nation's capital city, President Jonathan extended sincere condolences to the families of those who lost their loved ones in the dastardly attack.

The Nigerian leader said the apparent objective of the criminal and unpatriotic elements and forces behind the attack is to set back the progress the administration has made in the fight against terrorism in the country.

"It is obvious that these people do not mean well for Nigeria and its unity and development," he said.

Medical Director of the Damaturu Specialist Hospital Garba Fika confirmed that 40 students of the College of Agriculture at Gujba in Yobe State were killed by gunmen in the early hours of Sunday.

Garba said this when Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe visited the hospital to inspect the wounded and the corpses of students deposited at the mortuary.

He said  five students including three with fractures, one with bullet wound and another with abdominal injury were receiving treatment at the hospital.

Earlier, the governor appealed to the federal government and security chiefs to take urgent steps towards ending the frequent attacks and killings of innocent people in Borno and Yobe.

Gaidam made the appeal while inspecting the remains of 40 students of College of Agriculture deposited at the mortuary of Specialists' Hospital, Damaturu.

The governor described as highly alarming, the number of lives being lost to insurgents in the two states, warning that anyone traveling on the Damaturu to Maiduguri highway, was taking a huge risk.

He urged the newly established Seven Division of the Nigerian Army to intensify surveillance of all flash points in the two states, to flush out the insurgents.