Sacred Heart Minor Seminary is gradually moving on after a serious attack by suspected Fulani herdsmen left the school in disarray.
File Photo
Barely a week after armed Fulani herdsmen attacked Sacred Heart Minor Seminary in Jalingo the Taraba State capital, students of the school on Monday resumed for full academic activities.
Bishop Charles Hammawa of the Catholic Diocese of Jalingo had last Monday shut the school for one week following the attack on the school to enable the students to overcome the trauma.
Addressing the students at the reopening of the school on Monday, Rector of the school, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Atsue, urged the students not to allow the attack distract them from their studies.
Atsue told the students that a permanent security arrangement would be made in the coming days to ensure their safety.
“The 10 policemen deployed immediately after the attack are still on the ground, but we are going to make a permanent security arrangement with the Police for your safety before the end of the week.
“I also want you to continue to pray hard. I have a strong conviction that the May Devotion we are doing also helped in reducing the magnitude of the attack.
“Even as you pray, you must be on the alert as you have always been and report any threat to appropriate authorities in the school,” he admonished.
Some of the Seminarians including Terlanga Nev and Peter Benjamin who spoke to a Punch correspondent said they had since put the attack behind them.
“I was one of the persons the attackers first met when they invaded our school last week, but God spared me and others and the same God is alive.
“I strongly believe that God will continue to protect us, so we have nothing to fear,” said Terlanga Nev.
The herdsmen had on Monday last week attacked the Seminary in Jalingo and shot a priest, Rev. Fr. Cornelius Kobah, while some students of the school were beaten and property in the school destroyed.