The federal government has sent a delegation to meet with the parents of the 29 students of Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, who were murdered by Boko Haram insurgents on February 25, 2014, during an attack on the school premises.
The delegation, led by the Minister of Science and Technology, Abdul Bulama, held a meeting Tuesday with some parents of the killed students, chairman of the Parents Teachers Association, PTA, of the College, Kati Machina, representatives of the College Principal and some select journalists, at GAAT Hotel, Damaturu, Yobe State.
Addressing the gathering, Bulama, an indigene of Yobe state, stated that he came to convey the condolences of President Goodluck Jonathan to the parents.
The minister 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 also expressed the President’s earnest desire to bring an end to the insurgency ravaging the North east and reaffirmed the federal government’s commitment to ensuring a better life for the people through from the Victims Support Funds, VSF.
Bulama assured the community that the federal government would embark on the rebuilding of the destroyed college as soon as the security situation in the state was restored to normal.
Machina, who spoke on behalf of the bereaved parents, observed that the visit of the federal government delegation was one year late.
Noting that FGC, Buni Yadi, was a unity school, he also asserted that the federal government was expected to be at the forefront of comforting the bereaved parents when the incident occurred.
“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 stated.
One of the bereaved parents, Goni Ali Gujba, also spoke on the grievances of the parents and the feeling of abandonment that had enveloped them since the incident.
According to Gujba who lost a son during the attack on the school, some of the parents of the students are yet to reintegrate their children back to school due to some economic challenges.
Gujba also lamented the poor handling of the tragedy by the school authorities, stating that the school was yet to communicate or commiserate with the bereaved parents.
“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 any body 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 said.