Victims of Yobe Massacre Recount Ordeal, As Death Toll Rises to 59

F.G.C students, teachers recount ordeal

Yobe State - Several international bodies and personalities have reacted to the recent massacre of students of the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi in Yobe State by Boko Haram insurgents. They condemned the attack, saying it was inhuman and cruel.

The attack was bloody and the number of dead bodies at the last count was 59. However, some of the victims who survived the attack on Wednesday recounted their ordeals.

Map of Nigeria showing Yobe state in the North-east

As reported by Nigerian Eye, Aliyu Ayuba, a JSS 3 student, fled the scene with a bullet in his back. He said the assailants; young men and boys in military uniforms and plain clothes, ordered the students to gather in one place and started shooting sporadically. Aliyu added that all his roommates were killed and burnt inside the hostel.

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Another survivor said, “I was shot in my left leg, while I was sleeping. When I woke up, I could not walk and was later taken to the girls’ hostel where the insurgents gathered us with the female students. They selected some of the female students and went away with them, while they left some of us groaning in pain from gunshots.”

A teacher, Mallam Samaila Idris, told newsmen of how the attackers drove into the school premises in nine Hilux vans at around midnight on Monday. According to him, their bloody operation lasted for over five hours.

He said that those who stayed at the school thought the assailants were military personnel, until the shooting started. He added that those in the staff quarters fled before the terrorists started firing.

Speaking before the National Human Rights Commission, the Nigerian Bar Association, the Arewa Consultative Forum, the Jama’atu Nasril Islam, the Northern Elders Forum, the President of the Senate, David Mark, the Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, and the Prelate, Methodist Church of Nigeria, Dr. Chukwuemeka Uche, a state hospital official said the death toll had risen from 43 to 59.

“Fresh bodies have been brought in. More bodies were discovered in the bush after the students who had escaped with bullet wounds died from their injuries,” Bala Ajiya of the Damaturu Specialist Hospital said late on Wednesday.

Ajiya added that the school’s 24 buildings, including staff quarters, were completely burned to the ground by the islamists during the onslaught.

Source: Nigeria Bulletin