BEVERLY HILLS, March 10, (THEWILL) – It was lamentation galore Tuesday as the Federal Government sent a high-powered delegation led by the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Abdul Bulama, to the parents of the 29 students of Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Yobe State, killed over a year ago by Boko Haram gunmen.
This is coming a day after the Chibok community in Borno State complained of Federal Government’s insensitivity to their plight over the case of their abducted schoolgirls.
The meeting with the federal government delegation and parents of the slain FGC students held at GAAT Hotel, Damaturu , the Yobe State capital.
It was attended by some parents of the slain students, the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) Chairman of the College; Alhaji Kati Machina, representative of the College Principal and some select journalists.
Speaking at the meeting, the leader of the Federal Government delegation, Bulama, who is also an indigene of the state, said he had brought 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.”
According to him, the delegation came at the instance of President Jonathan to share his grief with the parents of the slain students, saying the president feels their pains as a parent and leader of the country.
He assured the bereaved parents that President Jonathan was determined to end the insurgency ravaging the Northeast region, and pledged the commitment of the federal government in ensuring a better life for the people through the Victims Support Funds (VSF).
Bulama said the Federal Government was ready to rebuild the destroyed College to a better standard than it was as soon as the security situation improves.
Opening the floodgate of lamentations on behalf of bereaved parents, one of the parents, Machina, said they were not happy at the visit which is coming well over a year after their children were killed.
“If the governor of the state can leave whatever he was doing to visit the school a day after it was attacked early last year, I expect that because of the distance from Abuja, they would have been in that school in a week or two.”
“But that did not happened until now, so we felt that the Federal Government has abandoned us,” he lamented.
Another bereaved student, Goni Ali Gujba, also lamented that some of the parents of the students of the school were yet to get their children back to school due to some economic challenges.
“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 today is the first formal delegation from Federal Government. Although there was a condolence letter unsigned from the office of the permanent secretary coordinated through the administrative officer who is a far junior officer.”
“When this incident happened, the two principals of the school were not there. In fact there was less than 17 staff there at the school. I was there because I lost one of my children and Buni Yadi is my home town. We confirmed that 29 student from the list here were dead. Some were even brought from the bush dead and up till this point, two are still missing and we assume they are dead.”
“We want to appreciate your formal meeting with us but it’s on record that there was poor handling of the situation by the school administration. Up to this moment, there is no communication to us from the school, no formal visit to the parents or calling us the parents to condole us just as a way of showing concern.”
“But I must say that on the side of the state government, the incident occurred on the 24 and 25 of February, 2014, the governor of Yobe State was there. In fact, he saw the victims and he made a pledge of N100 million there and we got N1m each though after one month.”
“Our concern here is the poor handling of the situation by the school authority. As Muslims and Christians, we believe in destiny and fate. Up to this moment, we have not seen anybody from the school authority. We expected the school to play the role of parents since our children were in their custody before they were killed,” he lamented.
