One Year After, FG Sends Delegation to Parents of 29 Slain FGC Bunu Yadi Students
in Maiduguri Over a year after Boko Haram attacked the Federal Government College (FGC), Bunu Yadi, killing 29 students of the school, the federal government has sent a high-powered delegation led by the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Abdul Bulama, to meet with the parents of the slain students.
In what was seen as a national tragedy preceding the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State, the terror group had attacked the college in Yobe State and killed 29 students of the school.
Although the federal government condemned the action of the insurgents at the time and vowed to bring them to book, no official delegation was sent to meet with the families of the slain students.
However, a federal government delegation finally met with parents of the dead students; the Parents Teachers Association (PTA); chairman of the college, Alhaji Kati Machina; a representative of the principal; and some select journalists, at GAAT Hotel in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, yesterday.
Addressing the parents, Bulama, who is also an indigene of the state, said he came to convey the condolences of President Goodluck Jonathan to the parents and prayed for the “repose of the souls of the slain young Nigerians who were killed because they wanted to have a better life by going to school”.
He said he was in Yobe at the instance of the president to share his grief with the parents of the slain students, adding that the president feels their pains as a parent and leader of the country.
He told them that the president was committed to bringing an end to the insurgency ravaging the North-east region and pledged the commitment of the federal government in ensuring a better life for the people through the huge resources of the Victims’ Support Fund (VSF).
The minister assured his audience that the federal government would, as a matter of urgency, rebuild the destroyed college to better standards as the security situation improves.
Speaking on behalf of the parents, Machina while expressing their grievances that it took the federal government more than a year to visit the bereaved families, added that given the fact that FGC, Bunu Yadi, is a unity school, the federal government was expected to be at the forefront of bringing relief to the families, students and college after its attack by Boko Haram.
Machina said: “If the governor of the state could leave whatever he was doing to visit the school a day after it was attacked early last year, I expected that because of the distance from Abuja, they would have been in that school in a week or two.
“But that did not happen until now, so we felt that the federal government has abandoned us.”
Goni Ali Gujba, one of the parents who lost his son, also spoke on the grievances of the parents and the poor handling of the incident by the school authorities.
According to him, some of the parents of students of the school were yet to reintegrate their children back to school due to economic challenges.
He said: “On behalf of the parents, let me use this opportunity to register our grievances with the federal government. This visit of today, which is exactly one year and three weeks, is the first formal delegation sent by the federal government.
“Although there was a condolence letter that was unsigned from the office of the permanent secretary, coordinated through the administrative officer who is a far junior officer, that was sent.
“When this incident happened, the two principals of the school were not there. In fact, there were less than 17 staff members there at the school. I was there because I lost one of my children and Buni Yadi is my hometown.
“We confirmed that 29 students from the list were killed. Some were even brought from the bush dead and up till this point, two are still missing and we presume they are dead.
“We want to appreciate your formal meeting with us. But we want to put it on record that there was poor handling of the situation by the school administration. Up to this moment, there has been no communication with us from the school, no formal visit to the parents or calls to us the parents to condole with us just as a way of showing concern.”
He however acknowledged that when the school was attacked on February 24 and 25, 2014, the Governor of Yobe State, Ibrahim Gaidam, visited the bereaved families and made a pledge of N100 million to assist them and the school, adding that each family got N1 million from the state government a month after the pledge was made.