Suspected herdsmen on Monday invaded the Sacred Heart Minor Seminary, Jalingo, Taraba State, shooting sporadically and causing some amount of destruction.
In the encounter, one of the priests, Rev. Fr. Cornelius Kobah, was shot in the leg, while some other persons, including Fr. Stephen Bakari, were beaten up.
The attack was announced by the Rector of the seminary, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Atsue, on Monday.
He said, however, that no life was lost.
The statement announcing the attack reads in part:
“With permission from my Bishop, Most Rev. Charles Hammawa of Jalingo Diocese, I, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Atsue (the Rector) want to announce and inform Nigerians and the international community that our diocesan Sacred Heart Minor Seminary was attacked in the early hours of this morning 28/05/2018 at about 12:30 a.m. by sophisticated armed Fulani Herdsmen (at least we heard their conversation).
“They shot sporadically at the Rector’s residence, broke window glasses in the process, (littered live bullets were collected by police) windscreen of one of the vehicles belonging to one of the priests, they shot and injured one of the priests, Rev. Fr. Cornelius Kobah on the leg, beat up Fr. Stephen Bakari.
“From their conversation we were able to understand that their grievances against us is that the security men in the Seminary have been challenging their decision to graze right inside the Seminary: around the classes, football field, laundry etc.
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“They said even inside the church if they saw grass their cows will graze.”
The rector said normalcy had temporarily been restored following the prompt response from the Nigerian Police, Army, Civil Defense and local vigilance group.
He added: “All our students are complete, none is missing.
“Two of them who were showing them the way to the Father’s house suffered injuries from the sticks of the herdsmen.
“I had a meeting with the officials of the Parents Teachers Association PTA and the bishop has equally approved one week break for the seminarians to enable them manage trauma for a while and to show themselves to their parents that they were safe.”