Yobe: B’Haram murders 50 sleeping college student on september 29th 2013

(1) Relatives of the slain students of the College of Agriculture, Guijba, (2) Another relative grieving beside an ambulance at the Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital, Damaturu in Yobe State ...on Sunday; (3) File photo of a Boko Haram attack in Borno State on September 19, 2013.

It was a bloody  weekend  in Yobe  and Borno states where the fundamentalist Islamist sect, Boko Haram,  killed at least  54 people

 While 50 of them were students of  the School of Agriculture, Guijba  in Yobe  State,  four  were  travellers  who were accosted  on the  Damaturu-Maiduguri Road  on Saturday evening by the insurgents.

 Investigations revealed that the Boko Haram members  attacked the College of Agriculture situated along the  Guijba-Damaturu Road   at 12 midnight when most of the students were already asleep.

 A security source confided in one of our correspondents that 50 students were killed by the insurgents who wielded guns, swords and knives. But the state government   put the casualty at 40.

 It was further stated that several other students, who were lucky to have escaped the killings with different degrees of injuries, were taken to the emergency ward of the general hospital.

Gruesome death

 The security source  claimed that the gunmen used  swords and knives to kill  36   of the students  to avoid attracting the attention of security operatives. He however added that 14 others, who   broke the wooden windows of their hostels to escape into the nearby bushes,  were shot dead by the insurgents.

 He added  that some of the corpses were without heads while others had heads  hanging to the bodies in spite of the attempts to sever them.

 The  source stated further that all the victims of the attack were male students aged between 18 and 22.

At the time of filing this story, wailing parents and relatives gathered outside the  Sani Abacha  Specialist Hospital  mortuary in Damaturu , where rescue workers laid out bloody bodies in an orderly row on the lawn for them to identify their loved ones.

One body had its fists clenched to the chest in a protective gesture while another had hands clasped under the chin, as if in prayer.Yet,  another had arms raised in surrender.

The Medical Director of the specialist hospital, Damaturu, Dr Garba Fika, who  said that  40 corpses were received by the hospital, added  that five students, were receiving treatment.

But the  Provost of the College, Molima Idi Mato, was quoted by the Associated Press   as having said that “the number of dead could be as high as 50.”

“They attacked our students while they were sleeping in their hostels. They opened fire at them,” he added.

Mato  was also quoted to have said that security forces were still recovering the bodies and that about 1,000 students had fled the campus.

He added there were no security forces stationed at the college despite government assurances  two weeks ago that they would be deployed.

The   AP  quoted a  surviving student, Ibrahim Mohammed, as having said that the extremists  rode into the college in two double-cabin pickup all-terrain vehicles and on motorcycles, some dressed in Nigerian military camouflage.

Mohammed, according to the AP, added that the insurgents appeared to know the layout of the college well as they  attacked the four male hostels but  carefully avoided the only  hostel reserved for girls.

When contacted, the Director, Army Public Relations, Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, said that he would call back to give the Army’s reaction to the killing.

 Another  call to his mobile telephone line after the discussion indicated that it was switched off.

Schools in  the state  re-opened 13 days ago after 10 weeks of forced closure following attacks targeted on schools.

In June, seven students and two teachers were killed at the Government Secondary School, Damaturu and in   July, 22 students and two teachers were killed at Government Secondary School, Mamudo.

 Gov Geidam, deputy  visit  victims, weep

Yobe State Governor. Ibrahim Gaidam,who visited the specialist  hospital to inspect the wounded and the corpses of students, was in tears  as he  urged security operatives to intensify aerial surveillance of the area.

The  Deputy Governor, Abubakar Aliyu   and other dignitaries, who accompanied him,  also shed tears  when they saw the corpses of the students.

Gaidam, through his Special Adviser on Press Affairs and Information, Mr. Abdullahi Bego,  later issued an electronic statement in which he  condemned the murder of the students  as ‘devastating, heinous and barbaric.’

 The statement  put the total number of dead  at 40 and the injured at four. It added   that the governor  promised to foot the   medical bills  of the injured.

The statement reads, “Governor   Gaidam strongly condemns   attack on students of the State College of Agriculture, Gujba. The governor describes the attack as devastating, heinous and barbaric.

 “Forty students were killed by criminals and terrorists while four others were injured during the attack.

 “On a visit Sunday to the injured  at the Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital, Damaturu, Governor Gaidam commiserated with families of the victims and prayed the Almighty Allah  to make the injured recover quickly.

 “The governor also says the Yobe State Government will foot the bill for medical treatment for the injured.

 “Governor Gaidam calls on the military and other law enforcement operatives in the state to intensify surveillance and patrols to deal more effectively with the prevailing security challenges.

 “The governor notes that although there is increase in troop movement and the deployment of more military hardware in the northeast, people are yet to see the kind of action on the ground that effectively nips criminal and terrorist activities in the bud.”

 Travellers sprayed with bullets

Another group of Boko Haram insurgents  barricaded the  Damaturu-Maiduguri   highway  and killed four travellers  in Mallumti,  a few kilometres to Benesheikh,   Kaga Local Government Area of Borno State.

It was gathered that the insurgents were confronted by a vigilante  group  known  as civilian JTF,  who killed   three of them.

The  driver of one of the  vehicles attacked by the gunmen, Mallam Usman Garba,    said, ‘ I have to give thanks to Allah for sparing our lives.  We could have run into the terrorists who  killed  four  people in Mallumti village, but when I sighted them barricading the road, I quickly make a U-turn with my passengers. We  had to go-back  to Damaturu before coming to Maiduguri Motor Park this (Sunday) morning.”

It was learnt that the  insurgents also killed 34 people in three different attacks in Borno State on Wenesday and  Thursday last week.

 In the first  two attacks,  they invaded Fulatari and Kanumburi communities in Gamboru Ngala Local Government Area of the state near Nigeria’s border with Cameroun.

 At least 27 people were killed in the two attacks.

 The dead included the village head of Gamboru, Lawan Ali Shettima.

 The victims of a third attack were the driver and six other occupants of a truck belonging to business magnate, Aliko Dangote, at a border community between Yobe and Borno..

 The insurgents were also said to have burnt down the truck said to be conveying  bags of cement to Maiduguri.

The Caretaker Chairman of Gamboru/Ngala, Alhaji Modu   Sherriff, was quoted as having condemned the heinous killing during a condolence visit to the affected community.