Boko haram kill 43 on Tuesday

Boko Haram Islamists killed 43 pupils on
Tuesday when they attacked the Federal
Government College in Buni Yadi, Yobe State.
The insurgents reportedly arrived at the college at
about 2am in 11 Hilux vans when the pupils were
already asleep.
They were said to have set locked hostels on
fire, before shooting and slitting the throats of
those who tried to climb out of the windows.
Some were burnt alive.
A teacher, Adamu Garba, said he and some of his
colleagues who ran away through the bush
estimated that over 40 pupils died in the
assault which bore the hallmarks of a similar one
in September at an agriculture training college in
the state.
Forty sleeping stud

ents lost their lives in the
September attack on a series of hostels in the
agriculture training college.
Before the Tuesday morning massacre, President
Goodluck Jonathan, at a seminar on the
‘Imperativeness of the Observance of Human
Rights and International Humanitarian Law Norms
in Internal Security Operations’ in Abuja on
Monday, appealed to Boko Haram terrorists to
lay down their arms and embrace dialogue.
Jonathan had during the presidential media chat
also on Monday, flayed the Borno State
Governor, Kashim Shettima, for saying that Boko
Haram members were better equipped and
motivated than the Nigerian troops deployed to
flush them out from the North-East.
He defended the military’s record, saying it had
recorded some successes against Boko Haram.
The President added that Nigeria was working
with the Cameroonian authorities to prevent the
militants from mounting attacks in Nigeria and
then fleeing over the border.
Another teacher at the Federal Government
College said the attackers first set ablaze the
college administrative block and then moved to
the hostels where they hurled explosives and
fired guns into the rooms.
At one hostel, he said, ‘Pupils were trying to
climb out of the windows but were caught and
slaughtered like sheep by the terrorists. Some
had their throats slit while others who ran were
gunned down.”
A senior teacher in the school, Ibrahim Abdul,
said that 11 pupils who were injured in the
attack that lasted till 4am were taken to an
undisclosed hospital for treatment.
He lamented that 40 houses, hostels,
classrooms and staff quarters were burnt in the
school.
The Yobe State Police Commissioner, Sanusi
Rufai, who left Damaturu for Bunu Yadi, put
the death toll at 29.
“Some of the students were burnt to ashes by the
insurgents. From the information I got, no female
pupil was killed. Only male pupils were killed ,”
he told the Agence France Presse.
But a senior medical source at the Sani Abacha
Specialist Hospital in Damaturu, said that
bodies of 43 pupils had been counted.
“So far, 43 bodies have been brought (from the
college) and are lying at the morgue,” said the
source, who requested anonymity as he was not
authorised to discuss death toll.
The Spokesman for 3 Division, Special
Operation Battalion, Lazarus Eli, said that
operatives had been deployed in the area in
pursuit of the attackers.
“Details are still sketchy due to lack of telephone
access, and it is still not clear how many students
were affected in the attack. But our men are
down there in pursuit of the killers,” he added.
A Damaturu resident, Babagoni Musa, said that
four ambulances carrying dead bodies drove past
his shop, which falls on the road from Buni Yadi.
“They had tree branches on them which is a sign
used here to signify a corpse is in a vehicle,” he
said.
People whose relatives were studying at the
college had surrounded the morgue and were
desperately seeking information about those
killed.
The governor of the state,Ibrahim Gaidam, who
was apparently dumbfounded, made a promise of
N100m to the victims and the repair of the
damaged structures.
Geidam called on the military to change the
tactics deployed to fight the insurgents in order to
achieve success.
However, Jonathan on Tuesday, condemned the
killings as callous and senseless.
He said in a statement by his Special Adviser on
Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, that he
received the news with immense sadness and
anguish.
The President extended condolences on behalf of
himself and the Federal Government to the
parents and relatives of the murdered pupils.
He promised that his administration would not
relent in its anti-terrorism fight.
The statement reads, “The President wholly
condemns the heinous, brutal and mindless killing
of the guiltless students by deranged terrorists
and fanatics who have clearly lost all human
morality and descended to bestiality.
“He assures the nation that his administration will
not relent in its ongoing efforts to end the scourge
of terrorism in parts of the country which has
sadly claimed more innocent lives today.
“The Armed Forces of Nigeria and other security
agencies will continue to prosecute the war
against terror with full vigour, diligence and
determination until the dark cloud of mass murder
and destruction of lives and property is
permanently removed from our horizon.”
A former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, said
he wept when he learnt of the killings of the
pupils.
Abubakar, in a statement by his media office in
Abuja, said that all the Federal Government had
been doing about the security situation in the
North-East amounted to chasing of shadows.
He frowned on the impression given by
Jonathan on Monday that the government had
been successful in pushing armed attacks to the
fringes of the country.
The former Vice-President said, “My heartfelt
condolences go to the families of the slain
pupils. It is unfortunate that innocent
schoolchildren will become victims of armed
attacks.
“This will not be the first time in recent times that
schoolchildren are being attacked, and it is
particularly disheartening that the Federal
Government has yet to devise a strategy of
keeping our schools safe from terror attacks.
“If our counter-insurgency strategies are not
strong enough to keep our children safe inside
their schools, then one must wonder if they are
not mere chasing shadows.
“It is important that the Federal Government ups
its counter-insurgency strategy and desist from
taking credits in pushing armed attacks to the
fringes, as the President would like to put it. No
Nigerian’s life is less in value to another.”