Gunmen set three more schools ablaze in Borno

No fewer than three schools were yesterday razed down in Biu, south of Borno by gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram. The incident came barely a week after three teachers were killed in Maiduguri school shooting while four students were injured. Sources said some gunmen who defied the 6pm to 6am curfew in Biu and had launched offensive against the schools in the town with Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in the early hours of yesterday, leading to the destruction of both public and private schools in the restive community.
“We heard blast at about 2am and then sporadic gunshots followed. These lasted for about two hours and nobody could say exactly what happened until this morning (Sunday) when we discovered that some schools have been attacked,” a resident who did not want his name in print disclosed. A military source told Daily Sun the attackers sneaked into the school premises because of their locations, claiming that “most of the affected schools were not located within the area that could easily be noticed.
The source said the destruction would have been massive had soldiers deployed to the town not intervened later. “These men would have burnt down many schools and then carried on other heinous act,” the top military personnel hinted. But residents dismissed the excuse as not convincing, insisting the security forces in the town ought to have promptly averted the attack from the first point even before spreading to other schools, especially against the backdrop of recent attack by the suspected Boko Haram in the area.
Some of the affected schools, according residents include, Godiya Primary School, Lajada Private School and Standard Private School. Biu, located about 187 kilometres south of Maiduguri, the state capital and epi-centre of Boko Haram insurgency is one of the flash-points of the activities of the Islamist sect.
President Jonathan had on December 31, 2012 declared state of emergency in the area and 14 other local governments of Niger, Plateau, Yobe and Borno. A soldier and two suspected Boko Haram reportedly died last Thursday following a gun battle between security troops and gunmen believed to be members of the sect after allegedly attacking a mini Coca Cola depot in the town.

SUN