- Incident occurred during a staff meeting in preparation for a school event
- Bandits entered the school compound with cattle, refused to comply with staff’s request to remove the cattle, and opened fire
- Other teachers, including the Vice Principal, were injured during the attack
In the Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State, bandits targeted a secondary school, resulting in the tragic loss of two teachers.
Reports indicate that the victims were a recently married couple, both serving as educators at the BECO Comprehensive Secondary School within the Kwi community of the local government.
According to eyewitnesses, this incident occurred during the afternoon hours of Monday. The teachers were in the midst of a meeting to consolidate student results in preparation for the upcoming ‘Speech and Prize-giving Day’ scheduled for Friday.
Confirming these heart-wrenching events, Moses Gwott, a youth leader in the community, provided details of the killings to journalists in Jos on Tuesday. Alongside the fatalities, the bandits inflicted injuries upon other teachers, including the Vice Principal of the school.
Gwott said, “It was on Monday around 3pm that the bandits came into the school compound with their cattle, and interrupted the staff meeting. The staff had asked the bandits who were obviously Fulani to get their cows out of the school environment. But instead of complying, they brought out their arms and opened gunfire at the teachers killing two teachers.”
The National Publicity Secretary of the Berom Youths Moulders Association, Rwang Tengwong, also confirmed the attack in a statement on Tuesday, calling on the authorities to ban open grazing in the communities so as forestall future occurrence.
“The Berom Youths Moulder-Association, is, again, saddened over the invasion of BECO Comprehensive School, Kwi, where two staff members, Mr and Mrs Rwang Danladi, were reportedly shot dead and one Mr Dalyop Emmanuel Ibrahim, the Vice Principal of the school seriously injured by some unknown Fulani armed men alongside suspected bandits at about 3 pm on Monday, August 14, 2023.
“This resulted in the death of the recently-wedded couple, Rwang Danladi and wife, Mrs Sandra Rwang Danladi, who was the staff of the school while Mr Dalyop Emmanuel Ibrahim, who is the Vice Principal of the institution, sustained a serious injury and is receiving medical treatment at the Jos University Teaching Hospital.”
The Berom Youth Moulder-Association, under the leadership of Solomon Dalyop Mwantiri, expressed concern about “how these terrorists from Fass and Mahanga now move freely with arms and graze on farmlands, intimidating locals at nearby communities.”
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Alfred Alabo, could not be reached for comment on his phone.