Ejiofor Alike
The death toll arising from the shooting of angry mob, who invaded the venue of the reunion of the 279 freed students of Government Secondary School in Jangebe, Zamfara State, rose to two yesterday.
According to ARISE NEWS Channels, the broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers, three people were fatally shot when the reunion of the schoolgirls with their parents turned violent on Wednesday.
The report disclosed that at least one of the shot victims was confirmed dead while the other two were fatally injured by the military.
However, ARISE NEWS yesterday announced the death of a second victim of the shooting incident.
The tragedy occurred when locals took up stones and other weapons expressing outrage over the long speeches being delivered by government officials at the school premises, which was the venue of the reunion.
THISDAY gathered that the parents had waited for several hours before the government officials arrived from Gusau, the state capital, with the students.
The situation, it was gathered, went out of hand when the government officials started making long speeches instead of handing over the students to their parents.
“When the parents became tired of the long speeches, they went inside by force to take their children home. The approach adopted by security agents to restrain the parents angered the youths, who started throwing stones, smashing windscreens and attacking people with weapons,” a journalist who witnessed the incident told THISDAY.
ARISE News also reported that the locals then invaded the school premises disrupting the process while government officials were still making remarks before handing over the students to their parents.
The Zamfara State Education Commissioner, Mr. Ibrahim Abdullahi, fled the scene immediately the chaos started while vehicles conveying journalists were attacked but no journalist was hurt.
