Newly recruited military officer stabs teacher in Taraba

A newly enlisted military officer stabbed a teacher at the Government Science Secondary School in Donga, Taraba state.

Pavalis Yebduya Joshua, the teacher who also serves as the institution’s examination officer, was stabbed after allegedly penalising the soldier’s brother for arriving late.

Trouble began on Tuesday morning, when SSS 2 students stopped latecomers. A recently enlisted soldier named Barau Ishaq brought in a student (Ishaq Baraya) who was late for school on a motorcycle and refused to leave him to be punished by the seniors for coming late.

The soldier stated he brought the student and hence no senior student or staff should punish him.

“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?” Joshua questioned.

“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 said 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 teacher however is pleading with the state government, the police, the DSS, the Nigerian Army, and everyone else concerned to step in and ensure that justice is done.

At the time of filing this report, neither the Nigerian Army nor the state government has issued a statement defending or condemning the act.