A MORE heart-rending disclosure came yesterday that the death toll in Tuesday’s attack at Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, had risen to 59.
In the same vein, prominent Nigerians and organisations, including Senate President David Mark, the All Progressives Congress (APC), the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, his Ekiti State counterpart, Kayode Fayemi, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Unity Schools Old Students Association (USOSA), the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), among others, have condemned the insurgents’ dastardly act.
But the Chairman of the Parent-Teacher Association of the college, Buni Yadi, Alhaji Mohammed Kati Machina, yesterday described as “incorrect and misleading” the total number of students killed .
He said based on the records of PTA and students’ register, the death toll remained at 29 and not 59 as claimed by some sources
His words: “We have an authentic report from the hospital and what we gathered is that only 29 students were killed. 21 students were killed
by gunshots while eight were burnt. 11 were injured and three were admitted at the specialist hospital in Damaturu.
“Some of the injured students have been taken away by their parents. Out of the 10 dead bodies that were brought to Damaturu, two were
burnt beyond recognition.”
The PTA chairman called on the Federal Government to provide security around all schools in the country especially Yobe and Borno States.
He extended his condolences to the families that lost their children and wards in the attacks.
In a related development, Arewa elders yesterday said that the Federal Government was not doing enough to rid the North and the country at large of insecurity following the latest murder of students in Yobe State.
Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Defence yesterday urged President Goodluck Jonathan to direct the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Kenneth Minimah, to relocate his office to the 7th Division of Nigeria Army in Maiduguri to tackle rising activities of insurgents.
And for the nation’s security agencies to effectively overcome the current security challenges, regimental pride must be relegated even as they share information and intelligence with each other, according to the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Usman Jubril.
According to the authorities of Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital, Damaturu, more bodies of the slain students were yesterday retrieved from nearby bushes.
A mortuary attendant, Jibrin Isa, said yesterday that after depositing 29 bodies on Tuesday morning, another 30 bodies were also brought in yesterday for identification of the slain students.
Isa added: “As of this morning (yesterday), we received and deposited a total of 59 bodies. This will enable the parents and family relations to properly identify the bodies before they could be released for burial.”
Mark lamented that the insurgents have no justification to kill students who neither offended them nor committed any crime against them. He said: “Even in war situations, children and women are always spared.
“This open declaration of war on everybody, especially defenceless students, cannot be justified. This is inhuman, it is animalistic and barbaric. It is unthinkable that this is happening in Nigeria.”
Mark sympathised with the government and people of Yobe State, especially the families of the bereaved, saying that the terror is not just national but an international threat that calls for bravery on the part of everyone to confront.
In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC said the attacks, which were extremely gory even by the scorched-earth tactics of the terrorists, plumb the depth of horror.
‘’What a sad day for Nigeria and indeed for all humanity when innocent school children were used as soft targets by a group of cowardly terrorists who have shed their toga of humanity on the altar of a meaningless ideology.
‘’We condole with the families of the victims as well as the government and people of Yobe State over this abominable crime. We urge the state and Federal Government to work together to ensure that schools in the state are adequately protected,’’ it said.
The APC called on President Goodluck Jonathan to immediately visit the state to offer succour to the families of the victims and the state government, saying that is the least the Federal Government can do to help soothe the pains of those involved.
The PDP in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, yesterday described the attack and killing of the harmless students as “monstrous and extremely shocking.”
Metuh said: “The PDP bleeds inside as we mourn the slaughtering of these promising young ones. Our hearts go out to the parents and families of these innocent students. We share in their anguish, their pain and their despair and we earnestly pray that those behind this act must not escape judgment for spilling the blood of the innocent. No man commits such wickedness and gets away with it,” the statement said.
Aregbesola, in a statement by the Director of Bureau of Communications and Strategy, Semiu Okanlawon, said the killing of the students was unconscionable as such dastardly act could only be perpetrated by people who have lost sanity and lack human feelings.
The governor said he was alarmed by the inhumane and brazen manner in which the Boko Haram now unleash violence on all cadres of people in the society.
Fayemi in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Yinka Oyebode, described the mass slaughter of innocent students as ungodly, barbaric, brutal, animalistic and inhuman.
He urged the authorities concerned to investigate the circumstances surrounding the withdrawal of soldiers from the community few hours before the gunmen struck.
The old students association, while condemning the attack, called for the immediate closure of all the eight federal unity colleges in the three states under emergency rule: Borno, Yobe and Adamawa as well as every other school that lies in harm’s way.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday in Abuja, the President-General of the association, Kabiru Nuhu-Koko, also called for the transfer of the students in the affected unity colleges to other federal unity colleges in the country to continue with their studies.
Chairman, Board of Trustees of the National Human Rights Commission, Chidi Kalu, noted that by attacking a unity school, the insurgents have succeeded in attacking the unity of Nigeria.
He called on all the politicians in Nigeria, irrespective of their political parties, to come together and give Nigerians reason to hope that the security challenges in the country can be tackled.
The ASCSN Secretary-General, Alade Lawal, urged the Federal Government to probe the report by a foreign media that security operatives posted to keep surveillance on the school were withdrawn shortly before the sect attacked the school.
Also, the Ikeja NBA Chapter Chairman, Monday Ubani, said the attack has proven that the emergency declaration and the security arrangements put in place by the Federal Government is a ‘sham’, adding that “Nigerians are not seeing any evidence on ground” to prove that the Boko Haram menace will soon be a thing of the past.
The JNI Secretary-General, Dr. Khalid Abubakar Aliyu, in a
statement said “the barbaric and heinous attack is utterly condemnable in its totality, considering the fact that just few days ago, Bama, Izge, Malari, all in Borno State, witnessed similar attacks by the terrorists.”
However, he explained that “we expect the Federal Government to wake up to its responsibility of protecting lives and property of Nigerians, especially in the North-East and stop the diatribe”, saying that “human lives are sacred and must be treated so.”
In a statement, former Kwara State Governor Bukola Saraki condemned the attack, urging that conscientious effort should be made to put an immediate halt to the mindless killings in the North-East. The Leaders of the Coalition and President of Civil Rights Congress (CRC), Malam Shehu Sani, in a statement said “the gruesome killing of innocent children is bestial callous, barbaric, indefensible, abhor-able, unjustifiable, ungodly and illogical.”
At a meeting between the committee and Chief of Army Staff on the 2014 budget in the Senate yesterday, the committee declared that the order became necessary following Tuesday’s killings.
It said that it was alarmed by the apparent upsurge in the activities of the insurgents.
And the Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, in a statement said the insurgents have crossed the border of decency by killing over 43 students in Yobe State.
Ndoma-Egba, who personally signed the statement, noted that the killings showed that the sect planned to plunge the country into a “bleak and blank future.”
He added: “It is obvious that we are now dealing with a bunch of animals to whom human life is now totally meaningless and worthless because when you attack students, you are attacking the foundation of the country’s future.
“So, this attack, to me, is to plunge the nation into a bleak and blank future. There would be need for us to modify our security strategy to include hot pursuit.
“This is permissible in international law if your neighbour is not taking concrete steps to halt these insurgents as it’s now clear that they hit us from outside the country and go back there to hide.”
The committee promised to make a tour of the affected states when the Senate resumes plenary.
The NANS Chairman in Yobe State, Dauda Mohammed Gombe, condemned the wanton killings and urged that the perpetrators should not only be brought to book, but the parents and guardians of slain students be also compensated.
In a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of ACF, Alhaji Muhammad Ibrahim after the meeting, the Arewa elders said “the attack was most cruel and gruesome”, pointing out that “the innocent students were massacred in their sleep by the insurgents for no just cause”.
The ACF therefore condoled with “the government and people of Yobe State and the bereaved families over the massacre of the innocent students. They urged the Federal Government to urgently intensify security in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and other parts of the North to checkmate the violent activities of the insurgents.”
Jubril stated this when he received the Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Mike Okiro, in his office in Abuja yesterday. He said for the fight against the insurgent to be successfully executed, the security service must do away with looking for personal accolades and commendations, but seek to collectively overcome the present challenge.
“If we are out to curb insecurity in this country, we must share information and intelligence”, he said.
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