Photograph Illustration 

By Alexandria Umeh

A newly recruited military officer, Barau Ishaq, stabbed a teacher, Pavalis Yebduya Joshua, at Government Science Secondary school in Donga, Taraba state, on Tuesday.

The incident occurred when Joshua, also the exam officer, punished Ishaq’s brother, a student, for late coming.

Ishaq had brought his brother to school on a motorcycle and refused to let him be punished by the seniors.

Channels Television reports that Joshua said Ishaq claimed he was disrespected when he punished his brother and threatened to come back with his colleagues.

The soldier claimed he brought the student and as such no senior student or staff should punish him.

Twenty minutes later, Ishaq returned with two others, one a soldier and the other a civilian wearing army camouflage, and attacked Joshua with a jack-knife. Joshua sustained injuries on his palm and fingers.

Joshua said, “As the teacher on duty, I interfered that the student should come back to be punished by me and this time I asked the young soldier if he was at the checkpoint and I refused to stop, will he be happy?

“The soldier said this is different then I said I will punish the student now and I flogged the student four strokes then the young soldier came down from the motorcycle and said I disrespected him.

“I replied him that by age I was not his mate. And since I graduated from university, if I had joined the army through Direct Short Service like my friends who succeeded in the army, he wouldn’t have been here talking to me. He said I couldn’t join the army and I that he too could never attain my level of education.

“We exchanged words to the extent that I asked him to leave my duty post, which he angrily left and promised to come back with his colleagues.

“20 minutes later he came back with two of his friends – one a soldier and the other a civilian wearing army camouflage pretending to be a soldier. They came to the school, pulled out a jack-knife, and chased away students while looking for me.

“Immediately he saw me, he tried stabbing me but by God’s grace, I tried dodging the knife severally and finally held him together with the knife and the knife gave me cuts on my palm and fingers.

“Seeing that the students and my colleagues were trooping to the scene, the soldier escaped abandoning his two colleagues.

“My principal ran to the police station and reported the case, shortly after the police sent an officer who came and took me to the station together with the abandoned soldier.

“The DSS came and took their statement and I was taken to the hospital by the police officer for treatment. the culprit escaped to the Special Force camp in Akate Donga’s local government area and reported the incident.

“The soldier later returned with a team of special force in complete uniform with a gun scaring the students as they escaped into the bush and in the process two of the students got degrees of injuries while others are still missing.

“After the treatment in the hospital, as I came back to the police station, I met the young soldier there with a team of young special force recruits and right there, I said if not because of the knife he was holding he would not have done this to me.

“There and then live in the police station as witnessed by the police officers and crowd, he again removed the knife and said he would stab me again and nothing would happen even in the presence of the DCO. One of the young special forces threatened to face me personally after the case, the DCO and other two police officers are my witnesses. The special force promised to offset the hospital bill but did nothing up to this moment.”

The police intervened, and Ishaq escaped to the Special Force camp in Akate, only to return with a team of special force personnel, threatening Joshua again at the police station.

The teacher however, is seeking justice and appealing to the state government, police, DSS, and Nigerian Army to intervene. The incident has sparked tension in the area, with students fleeing in fear.

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