A trending video of the attack seen by SaharaReporters on Thursday morning, showed the school children and their teachers lying down and being questioned on why they disobeyed the sit-at-home directive.
Some gun-wielding hoodlums reportedly enforcing the purported one-week sit-at-home in Enugu State have attacked a yet-to-be-identified primary school, flogging pupils and their teachers for disobeying their order.
A trending video of the attack seen by SaharaReporters on Thursday morning, showed the school children and their teachers lying down and being questioned on why they disobeyed the sit-at-home directive.
The terrified and traumatised pupils, who were flogged repeatedly were overheard telling the hoodlums that they came to school to take their First School Leaving Certificate examination, which is a statewide examination.
The children and their teachers who were seen wailing pleaded with the unidentified gang that they will never disobey sit-at-home directive again in their life.
One of the hoodlums was overheard saying "This is happening live in one of the primary schools in Enugu West senatorial district in the state."
The outlawed group was overheard in the video asking the pupils “Why did you people come out today that you know is sit-at-home?
“I want everybody to obey the rules of Biafra. If they flog you today, you people will know that you don’t need to come out any day we have sit-at-home. You should not ever violate again the rules of government of Biafra.
“Any day they ask you to come out on the day of sit-at-home, tell them you won’t go to school because they have sit-at-home. That’s why we supposed to give you a little punishment.”
When asked what they had to say, one of the pupils, amid tears told them, “We will not come out again.”
SaharaReporters had reported that there was commotion in the state capital on Wednesday as residents scampered to safety in various parts of the coal city over rumours of unknown gunmen enforcing the sit-at-home order.
It was reported that schools and markets were abruptly shut down after the rumours spread despite the presence of security operatives on major roads and strategic places.
SaharaReporters observed that students in schools that had no perimeter fences were immediately dismissed to go home.
It had been reported that the Enugu State government vowed to track down and prosecute scaremongers spread fake news that gunmen enforcing illegal sit-at-home are shooting in some parts of the state that caused the commotion on Wednesday.
The Secretary to the State Government, Professor Chidiebere Onyia, who made vow in statement while reacting to pandemonium on Wednesday, said that peddlers and instigators of the fake news and pandemonium were already being tracked down by security agencies with a view to bringing them to book.
SaharaReporters had reported that outlawed Simon Ekpa, the acclaimed leader of the Biafra Republic Government declared a one-week sit-at-home protest in the South-East from Monday, July 3 to July 8, 2023.