An unspecified number of students were killed by the suspected members of the Boko Haram Islamist sect in Monguno Local Government Area of Borno State on Saturday on their way back home from centres where they wrote the West African Examination Council (WAEC) exams.
According to a villager, Mallam Aisami, the candidates were waylaid and ambushed on their way back from the centres on foot and bicycles, had their hands tied behind their backs and their throats slit on the foot path leading to the school premises in the afternoon.
He said that the gunmen then fled on three motorcycles to neighbouring Marte Local Government Area before men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) rushed to the scene of the killing.
The incident was confirmed by both the spokesman of the JTF, Lt. Col Sagir Musa and the Borno State Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Musa Inuwa Kubo, who both described the incident as very unfortunate and frightening. However, they could not ascertain the number of students that were killed.
Kubo told journalists in a telephone interview that; “I am calling on the people of Borno State to continue to pray and fast so that the incessant attacks and killings in the state cease peace and unity are restored.
“I pray that the trying and challenging times of insecurity of lives and property here in Borno will come to an end soon, by God’s willing and the full support of our leaders in the state.”
Monguno, a town of 135 kilometres north of the state capital, Maiduguri is considered to be a hotbed of Islamist activities.
Last week, six teachers, including a principal were killed by the insurgents.
Meanwhile, sources within the JTF have said that unless political leaders, along with traditional and religious leaders in Borno State, collectively condemn the activities of members of Boko Haram sect, there might be no peace, despite the deployment of troops and policemen to the state”, even as findings indicate that members of the Yoruba and Igbo communities in Borno States had been leaving their places of abode, relocating to other places considered to be safer and more secured.