Some gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram insurgents yesterday burnt a school and a health facility in Katarko village, near Damaturu, the Yobe State capital
Residents said the insurgents set ablaze the Katarko Primary School and the primary healthcare clinic in the village after looting drugs and food items.
It was learnt that a military base in the village may have been burnt, but this could not be confirmed.
A resident, Adamu Ali, said he and his family were woken by gunshots and petrol bombs.
He said the insurgents struck at about 5.30 am while Muslim prayers were ongoing.
“It was such a very terrible way of waking up. The gunshots and the fire from the petrol bombs were scary, but thank God, we stayed in the house and we were not attacked,” Adamu said.
Katarko is about 25km east of Damaturu.
Army spokesman, Sector 2 Operation Lafiya Dole, Lt. Kennedy Anyanwu, did not respond to messages sent to him.
Also yesterday, President Muhammadu Buhari said the rising criminality was adversely affecting his reform agenda in the mining sector.
He spoke in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, at the opening of the 56th Annual International Conference and Exhibition of the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society (NMGS).
President Buhari, represented by Minister of State, Mines and Steel Development, Dr Uchechukwu Ogar, reiterated his directive to Service Chiefs to ruthlessly deal with criminals.
He said: “As a nation, we are currently battling various forms of security challenges and working relentlessly in providing innovative solutions to the myriads of challenges that are confronting the citizens.
“A few of our people had resorted to breaking the law and outright criminality by engaging in banditry and all sorts of illegal activities.
“These nefarious activities have serious implications for the various reform agenda this administration has embarked upon in the mineral, energy and agricultural sectors.
“It is difficult to achieve any meaningful development in any environment plagued with security challenges.
“The reality of this truth is most obvious in the minerals sector, given the fact that mining activities take place in remote localities.
“Our intelligence-gathering efforts have confirmed that most of these criminal elements have infiltrated the mining industry and are using it as a means of funding their despicable activities.
“It is with this understanding that we recently took the painful, but necessary decision of banning all forms of mining activities in Zamfara State where armed banditry has persisted.
“It is also to this end that I directed the Ministers of Mines and Steel Development to strengthen collaboration with state governments and relevant security agencies to ensure the security and safety of all mining areas.
“In so doing, we can achieve sustainable development of the minerals sector for the peace and security of our great country and good people.
“It is in furtherance of our commitment and resolve to address the security challenges that I recently charged the newly decorated Service Chiefs that they have just a few weeks to crush all forms of criminality in the country.
“We cannot yield the sovereignty of our nation to a bunch of individuals who have refused to see reasons to abandon their criminality.
“The Security Chiefs have been mandated to forcefully bring this criminality to an immediate end.
“Let me reiterate that the government is more than capable and more than ever determined to halt all forms of criminality perpetrated by these individuals.”
Following a series of attempts to kidnap primary and secondary school pupils, the Kaduna State government ordered the closure of all public and private schools in the Kajuru Local Government Area.
Last Thursday, 39 students were abducted when gunmen invaded the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation in Afaka, Igabi LGA of the state.
A March 16 memo signed by the Director of Quality Assurance Authority, Abigail Adze, reads: “The Director-General, Kaduna State Schools Quality Assurance Authority, has directed me to inform all principals and proprietors of both public and private schools in Kajuru Local Government Area to close down all schools with immediate effect.
“No school should re-open until you are directed to do so. Be security conscious at all times.”
