No fewer than 109 members of the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri were killed while 107 children are now orphans. Twenty-seven female members also lost their husbands as a result of frequent attacks on the diocese by insurgents.

The figures were released by Maiduguri Diocese which consists of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states bedeviled by the insecurity attacks ravaging the region and taking its toll on the church.

At a press conference which took place at Saint Peter’s Minor Seminary, Yola, the director Social Communications in the Directorate, Rev. Fr. Gideon Obasagie, lamented the persecutions suffered by Christians in the hand of the Boko Haram insurgents. Obasagie said that unless the Federal Government of Nigeria applies drastic measures to save Christian lives in the three insurgency-ravaged states, “Christians living in the areas will be completely wiped out as the scale of violence being meted out to them is unfathomable.”

According to him, the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri, especially the Saint Augustine Catholic Minor Seminary School in Shuwa, Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State, has been worst hit in the face of insecurity, adding that apart from dislocation of the entire communities with many of their worshipers fleeing the affected communities, the people are living in perpetual fear.

While testifying to the fate that befell a school when insurgents struck in Chakawa, rector of St. Joseph’s Minor Seminary, Rev. Fr. Alexander Miskita William, said the insurgents came into the town they started firing shots which aroused their suspicion leading to enquiries about what was actually happening in the town.

“We were surprised to note that insurgents have launched attack in the area even as we knew the military were deployed to the area to curtail such attacks. We were told that Boko Haram was on rampage and as a result, we gathered the students as we had no alternative other than to move,” he said.

Rev. Fr. William explained further that “when we heard the chanting of ‘Allah Akbar’ we immediately took the 240 students in the school to safety through the perimeter fence where we spent the night in the bush.”

He added that the attack was meant to leave him lifeless as the insurgents kept asking of the priest while the operation lasted.

According to him, “There was a crippled man in the school who could not escape before the insurgents struck. When they met him, they asked him to take them to the priest but he told them that he was a stranger and does not know anybody, fortunately, that was his saving grace.

“They later took two of the security guards who led them to the various places in the school to look for me but when they could not located anybody they razed down the chapel, the rector’s house, staff quarters and all the four cars and four motorcycles in the school before killing the guards.”

He said so far about 90 students have been withdrawn by their parents from the school following the uneasy calm that has pervaded the school.

Also speaking, Parish priest of Saint Peter’s Parish in Pulka, Rev. Fr James John, said between Gwoza and Bama areas of Borno State, about 23 local churches were razed down as Christians were forced to leave the areas which led to 43 people losing their houses and property worth millions of naira destroyed.

Rev. Fr. Jones added that 17 members of his church have been killed, five kidnapped and 43 of members’ houses burnt.

Others at the conference include Rev. Father Jerome Odineze representing St. Dennis parish, Rev. Fr Yakubu Philibus, co-ordinator of St. Stevens Boys Secondary School, Duhu in Shuwa and Rev. Fr. James John. Also present was Rev. Fr. Alex Misikita whose pupils have been re-settled at St. Peter’s Seminary in Yola to enable them write their junior school exams as the attacks in Shuwa has paralysed all academic activities.

•Text courtesy Saturday Independent. Photo shows Boko Haram fighters.

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