TheCable

Tuesday morning’s attack by unidentified gunmen on The Vine Kiddies International Academy could have been averted had the police responded swiftly, going by the statement of the security man of the school.

Five gunmen attacked the school around 8am, making away with a Toyota Hiace Bus with Registration Number XG246GWA.

Mr. Sylvester Chahul, a teacher who witnessed the incident, said that the five “heavily armed” men struck when the pupils were already inside the school.

“They went straight for the driver of one of buses, and asked him to release the key of the bus,” Chahul said.

“The driver gave them the key and ran away. The security man, Gabriel, tried to intervene, but he was overpowered. He managed to escape, and dashed to a police post close by.”

The school … deserted after the attack

Corroborating Chahul’s story, Gabriel said that on getting to the police post, the police officer on duty told him to wait for his boss. As at that time, Gabriel said, the armed men were still within the premises of the school.

When TheCable arrived at the school at 9:17am, the Police had still not reached the school. They did not, until minutes after 10am.

A security source who spoke to TheCable anonymously said the armed men might need the bus for some sinister operation, perhaps wiring it with explosives and parking it somewhere.

Proprietor of the school, Mrs. Fola Kolade, was not at the school when the incident happened. But after she was briefed on her return, she dismissed rumours that some pupils of the school were abducted.

“All the children are safe,” she said. “Yes our bus was stolen, but no child was kidnapped, so parents do not need to panic.”

With two high-casualty bomb blasts in Nyanya in less than a month, parents of children in the area were worried by the attack, and some of them have already made panic withdrawals of their children from schools in the neighbourhood, particularly Ave Maria Primary School.