The four female students injured in the Maiduguri
schools massacre have been recounting their ordeal, explaining how their
teacher was murdered in their presence by gunmen suspected to be
members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect.
It was a Monday morning, the beginning of a new week.
The day had started well like other previous days at Shehu Sanda
Kyarimi Government Day Senior Secondary School, located at Customs area
of Maiduguri metropolis. Students in the SS 3 class filed into their
classroom.
A few minutes later, their teacher emerged and introduced some
teasing remarks with a mixture of jokes as his attention-catching
method. The interesting jokes threw the class into a frenzy. But sadly,
two unusual guests, who came to carry out some bizarre assignment,
brought the euphoria into an abrupt end. “The two strangers (gunmen)
just appeared at the door and it was like our malami (teacher) suspected
something bad was coming. They called him outside and he was trying to
go and then they fired at him.
Everybody jumped up and there was confusion. They started shooting again.
That’s all I know,” Hadiza, one of the victims of the Monday attack at
the Shehu Sanda Kyarimi Government Day Secondary School told Gov Kashim
Shetima, who visited them at the University of Maiduguri Teaching
Hospital (UMTH).
She said they were hit by stray bullets from the sporadic shooting
by the gunmen as they attempted to flee the classroom after their
teacher was killed, adding that the students would miss their economics
teacher, who was gunned down before their very eyes.
Medical personnel in the hospital said Hadiza had a fracture on her
leg from gunshots. While Hadiza could still recall the tragic incident
as she lies on her hospital bed, the three others seem to be too weak to
talk. Gov Kashim Shettima, who expressed his sympathy to the families
of the affected student during his visit to the hospital on Tuesday,
promised the readiness of the state government to handle further
treatment of the female students if the need arises.
“I assure you we will foot the bill and other expenses even outside
the country if there is need for that, but the hospital has assured us
that they can handle the situation for now,” he said. While condemning
the attack, he said the government would empower the parents of the
students to ensure they get out of their coma.
He gave out N200, 000 to each of the students and equally extended
similar gesture to other patients in the hospitals as well as four
soldiers affected by the Tuesday bomb explosion. Earlier in the day, the
governor had visited the four schools attacked by suspected Boko Haram
men where six people, including three teachers, were killed in the early
morning shooting. He announced a donation of N2 million to the families of the deceased teachers.
“The monetary donations were not to compensate the already killed
teachers but to enable the family members of the deceased and survivors
cushion their financial need,” he explained. Some gunmen suspected to be
Boko Haram members on Monday morning invaded four schools in the
Maiduguri metropolis.
They included Mafoni Government Day Secondary School, Ali Askiri
Primary and Junior Secondary School, Shehu Sanda Kyarimi Senior
Secondary (Day) School and Yelwa Central Primary School. At Mafoni
Government Day, a female
administrative staff of the school, one Hadiza Abdulmalik and her two
guests were shot dead while the Arabic teacher/assistant headmaster at
Ali Askiri Primary school was also gunned down.
Yelwa Central also lost one of its teachers in the school massacre
while a teacher at Shehu Sanda Kyarimi was killed. The teacher was said
to have gone into hiding some months ago after receiving threats from
suspected Boko Haram members. “He ran to his village at Gozamala because
of the fear that he might be killed.
He was there for about two months and returned barely a month ago
when the gunmen came,” the head teacher of the school told the governor.
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