A primary school pupil has been hospitalised after he was hit by stray bullets during lunch break in Morawa village, Batagarawa Local Government Area of Katsina State.
According to reports, the victim, one Bello Salisu of Morawa Primary school, was hit in the shoulder, neck and hands by bullets fired by officials of the Nigerian Customs Service.
The Customs personnel were said to have been in pursuit of alleged rice and second-hand clothes smugglers along Katsina – Kano road.
The smugglers were reportedly travelling in a Peugeot J5 bus when the customs operatives opened fire at them. The bullets, however, failed to meet their targets, hitting Salisu instead.
Salisu, who spoke to journalist from his hospital bed in the Accident and Emergency area of General Hospital, Katsina said they were on break when they heard gunshots and ran to see what happened. He was, however, hit by stray bullets.
An eyewitness, Abubakar Yusuf said the customs operatives were chasing smugglers when the incident occurred.
He said,
“The customs officers were chasing a J5 bus which was carrying smuggled rice and second-hand clothes. They shot at the smugglers and a stray bullet hit the pupil. And so we had to rush the boy down to the hospital as they drove away.”
Another class teacher, Shawanatu Musa said the incident happened when the pupils were on break. They heard the sound of gunshots and later were told that a pupil from the school was hit by a bullet.
“We were seated when we heard loud sound of gunshots. We were preventing our pupils from going to the roadside when someone came to inform us that one of our pupils was shot.”
The victim’s parents could not talk as they cried uncontrollably. It was gathered that Salisu is the only male child in the family.
Principal Personnel Officer, PPO of the Batagarawa Local Government Education Authority, LGEA, Aminu Bello, expressed dismay over the incident which he said calls for urgent intervention by the government to avert a future occurrence of such incidence.
