Yobe Attack: How We Escaped Through The Window - Survivors

Some

of the survivors of last Saturday’s midnight attack on the students of the College of Agriculture, Gujba, Yobe State, which about 70 students were killed, have narrated how they escaped death by the whiskers, jumping through the window when the gunmen stormed the hostel.

The survivors, who are now receiving medical treatment at the Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital, following injuries received during the attack told LEADERSHIP yesterday that the gunmen, who were cladded in military camouflage stormed the school in a commando style and opened fire on them.

According to Adamu Mohammed, a final year student of Animal Husbandry department when it dawned on the students that the school was surrounded by the gunmen, all the students were confused and began to seek escape routes.

He said, “We were all sleeping in the hostel when one of our students came into their room in a confused state, saying they will kill us, they will kill us. When we heard this, everybody in the hostel became confused.

“There was no light and we could not go out while we don’t know where to go in the night. Some of my colleagues decided to go into security office to report what they had seem.

“When we were trying to come out from our hostel, we saw many people with army uniforms and immediately, they started shooting us from different directions. They killed many of my friends, but some of us managed to escape through the window of our room, I ran into the bush.”

Another survivor, who gave his name as Sule, said he lost two of his brothers in the attack. He lamented that the attack had left everyone completely devastated.

He said, “Let me tell you that in the recent attack, I lost my two blood brothers. I had to run with them in the bush but no success, we are suffering most in the ongoing Boko Haram crisis. We have lost our brothers and sisters, parents, children and friends. The crisis has impacted negatively on our studies and daily activities were collapsed.”

The Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital where the wounded were taken to for treatment and the remains of the dead were deposited was a beehive of activities as relations and sympathisers thronged the place to see the spectacle left by the attack.

A father of one of the victims, 18-year-old Ahmadu, Alhaji Ado Adamu, described what happened as barbaric and unIslamic.

He said, “Let me tell you that no one in his right senses will destroy the place of learning, destroy houses of the poor and kill innocent people. God is with us, from God we came and to him we shall return. I lost my first son Ahmadu. He is kind, dedicated and very honest. May God Almighty grant my late son Aljanna Firdausi.