Three hundred students and teachers of St. Joseph Catholic Minor Seminary Shuwa in Michika Local Government of Adamawa State, escaped death by the whiskers when bloodthirsty Boko Haram insurgents stormed their school recently.  Two guards in the school were not so lucky.  They were killed by the mindless attackers.  The chapel, the priests’ house, classrooms and dormitory blocks were all razed down, using high explosives.

Face to face with the rampaging Boko Haram who invaded their school in the night in their preparatory classes, the students were compelled to jump the perimeter fence of the school and escaped into the nearby bushes.  It was an excruciating experience.  According to Independent Catholic  News (ICN), the terrorists stormed into Shuwa village with an armored truck, rocket launchers, high caliber guns  and more than a dozen jeeps.

“We were like walking in the shadow of death”, one of the students, Charles Aji told a national newspaper.

“It was just few days after Boko Haram attacked the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi and slaughtered many students there”. According to Charles, “We were in prep classes when we started hearing gunshots.  Then, our Vice-Rector, Fr. Joshua Ijah gathered us in a place and prayed for us and quickly told us we had to flee the school as Boko Haram were coming. Everybody was terrified.  What  if they intercepted us while running or open fire on us in the bush?  Many of us had asked, but there was no time for answer.  The priest just yelled at us saying, ‘Just run for your lives because time is running out.  God will protect you”.

He said time was indeed running out as any delay could be more dangerous and catastrophic.

“We jumped fences because we feared Boko Haram may already be at the gate.  It was very dark outsides there but we kept moving into the bush, though not sure of our safety.  After sometime, we separated ourselves into different groups, some followed the vice-rector and others followed some staff.  We laid in the bush till day break in fear as our school was on fire while the Boko Haram were shooting”, he explained.

The 16-year-old junior seminarian said he would always remember his 10-hour experience in the dark, lonely and frightening bush.

“We were just there hoping God spares our lives to see the break of the day”, he said.

Boko Haram had late February attacked Izge, a community located south of Borno and near Shuwa, the site of St. Joseph Catholic Minor Seminary in the neighbouring Adamawa State.  Two days later, the insurgents appeared at the seminary to unleash more terror.  “They burnt down the school and killed two guards attached to the priest’s house”, a teacher in the school, Mr. Jacob Julius who also survived the attack, disclosed.

Joseph said they were alerted by Shuwa residents about the invasion of Boko Haram insurgents, adding that the information helped the school authority to plan ways of evacuating the students and staff, hence the school would have lost hundreds of its students.  “We heard sporadic gunshots and these shots were very close to the school.  We were also hearing people screaming, shouting and it was then we knew there was problem and we had to plan how to escape before it is too late”, he explained.

He, however, said the fear of Boko Haram tracing them into the bush almost snuffed life out of many of them.  “Each movement we heard, maybe, from insects or animals in the bush, was like Boko Haram were near us.  Many students were panting; it was a harrowing experience, which words cannot capture.  Such experience could cause older persons emotional imbalance or hypertension”, he stated.

Jacob disclosed that the insurgents conscripted a physically-challenged teacher to lead them to all the structures within the premises.  He said they had wanted to kill the teacher after setting the school ablaze but the plea from one of the insurgents saved the cripple.

“One of our teachers, a cripple, could not flee when others were running because of his condition.  So when the people came, they questioned him about the whereabouts of the students and teachers but he lied to them he was a visitor.  They then conscripted him and pushed him in his wheel chair to lead them to all the structures in the premises.  After setting fire on all the buildings, one of them ordered that the teacher be shot but another pleaded he should be left alone having assisted them do their work in the school.  That was how they left him”, he said.

Sunday Sun gathered that the authority of the institution had already shot down the seminary to prevent further attack.  The Catholic Bishop of Maiduguri Diocese, Most Rev. Oliver Dashe Doeme, said Borno, Yobe and the northern part of Adamawa states were under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Maiduguri Diocese.  He said the school would have lost “many bright future of Nigeria” like in the Buni Yadi incident, had the authority not evacuated the students and staff.  He expressed worry over the spate of Boko Haram attacks in the area, stressing that the development called for concern.

They also attacked a nearby clinic run by Augustinian Sisters who ran away just in time.

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