IT was a moving scene. Some parents wailing on seeing the charred remains of their loved ones. Others were searching for their children, who may have died in the Boko Haram’s Tuesday attack on the hostels of the Federal Government College, Boni Yadi, Yobe State, in which 43 pupils were reportedly killed. A parent said yesterday that 29 died.
There was outrage over the killings, with the United Nations (UN) and France leading the way.
At the Gen. Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital in Damaturu, the state capital where the injured were taken, officials were busy attending to distraught parents searching for their wards. Only three of the 11 injured were being treated at the hospital.
The others had been taken away by their parents.
Parents/Teachers’ Association Chairman Mohammed Kati Machina, an engineer, recounted the grim, but unavoidable task of burying the dead.
He said: “We buried two of the eight burnt students at Buni Yadi because they were so badly burnt. Ten bodies were brought to Damaturu, with six burnt beyond recognition.”
Machina, who spoke with The Nation in Damaturu, said 29 pupils were killed.
“We have an authentic report from the hospital and what we gathered is that only 29 students were killed. Twenty-one students were killed by gunshots while eight were burnt beyond recognition. Eleven of the students were injured and three have been admitted at the Gen. Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital in Damaturu. Some of the injured students have been taken away by their parents.”
“Two of the bodies were taken away to Gombe for burial by their parents,” he added.
The PTA chairman urged the Federal Government to provide security around schools, especially in Yobe and Borno states – two of the three states worst-hit by the Boko Haram insurgency. He sent his condolences to the families of the dead children.
The school was just resuming from a mid-term break when the insurgents struck.
A hospital source, who pleaded not to be named, said some parents came in search of their kids but could not find them.
He said: “The situation is so pathetic. Some of the parents were here earlier today in search of their missing children but could not find them. Maybe some of them are among those burnt beyond recognition. Nobody can tell for now”.
Machina said: “I am in contact with some of the parents who came from Borno and Gombe States to look for their kids. Though some of them cannot see or identify the bodies as those of their children, we are assuming that they could be the ones that are burnt beyond recognition”, Machina said.
He added that the school principal had traveled to Abuja to seek the approval of the Minister of Education, to give a mass burial for the remaining six burnt pupils.
The world was outraged yesterday over the killings.
source: nigerianeye
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