Barely one week after about four primary schools within the Maiduguri Metropolis of Borno State were razed down by suspected Islamic fundamentalists known as Boko Haram, another round of arson attack was yesterday night unleashed on two private schools.
The two schools – Success Secondary School and Sunshine Stars Secondary School, were believed to have been burnt down by arsonists suspected to belong to the same group.
The first private school that was set ablaze since the beginning of the sect’s renewed onslaught on schools in Maiduguri was Experimental Primary and Secondary School, located along the Ruwan Zafi area of the state metropolis.
So far, no less than three private schools and four public primary schools have been torched by the suspected Islamic extremists in the state.
The list of the schools are: (public schools) – Budum Primary School, Abbaganaram Primary School, Costain Primary School, Kofa-biu Primary School while the private schools are: Experimental Primary and Secondary School, Success Secondary School and Sunshine Stars Secondary Schools.
At Success Secondary School, one of the senior staff who preferred anonymity told LEADERSHIP that, the latest incident took place around 8:30 pm to 9:00 pm when all the personnel had closed from the school.
According to him, two classrooms and an office of the school which were fully equipped with school materials were burnt to ashes. The school runs as a campus comprising of JSS 3 to SS 1 and with a population of over 700 students had been in existence for about nine years.
It was discovered that the arson attack on Sunshine Stars Secondary School which is not far from the former occurred simultaneously.
In the estimation of Hajiya Ladi, the representative of the principal of the school, Ladi Usman Musa, he noted that the incident also happened around 8:30pm to 9:00pm.
“I had closed from school and left for my house which is even far from here before the incident occurred.? So, I cannot say exactly how it happened or who burnt it, but the truth of it is that, the school has been burnt.”
Also, corroborating her claim, some of the students who claimed to have watched while the section of the school got burnt told our reporter that they earlier heard a deafening sound which was more of a bomb blast and sporadic gunshots yesterday night before the building of the school went up in flames.
Also, when LEADERSHIP visited Budum Primary School where one of the earlier attacks occurred this week ascertain the situation of events there, especially to know if the pupils had been relocated elsewhere for classes or not, a teacher in the school who wanted anonymity revealed that, the pupils were still taking lessons in the unaffected parts of the building.
The teacher said, “As you can see, the pupils have not been relocated to anywhere, this is where they are still taking their lessons, the other parts that are not burnt. But the big problem we are facing is that, most of the teachers are no longer coming to school after the attack.”
Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Education in the state, Hon. Inuwa Kubo has expressed deep worries over the on-going destruction of both public and private schools in the state, stressing that such action was a great set-back to the educational development of Borno State.