An attempt by armed bandits to kidnap students of the Turkish International Secondary School in Kaduna State was thwarted on Friday, the Nigerian Army has said.
Acting on a tip-off on the impending abduction of the school children in the Rigachikun area of the state, troops of Quick Response Force of 1 Division of the army quickly mobilised to protect the school from the bandits.
Brigadier General Mohammed Yerima, who is the Director of Army Public Relations, disclosed this in a statement.
While the troops were securing the school, the army spokesman said another distress call was received that bandits had stormed the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation in Afaka.
The state Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, said checks have confirmed that 39 students are currently unaccounted for, among which are 23 females and 16 males.
A non-academic staff of the college told our correspondent that four students: three females and a male, were injured during the invasion and had been moved to one of the military facilities for treatment.
He said the male student who was forced to lead the bandits to the female hostel “broke free from the kidnappers and was injured in the process, but nevertheless escaped.”
In an interview with the Channels Television, Governor Nasir El-Rufai said they got a security report that bandits were planning to attack a private school which was not far from the college where the fresh abduction took place.
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1. Nigerians, yesterday, woke up to yet another hike in the price of petrol from N165 naira per litre to N212.61. But the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Timipreye Sylva asked Nigerians to disregard the increase, saying it was a mix-up.
2. The National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (retd.), yesterday alleged that $1bn funds meant to purchase arms to tackle insurgency during the ex-service chiefs’ tenure got missing. This comes over a month after the ex-service chiefs’ resignation and replacement by President Muhammadu Buhari.
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The school is about 15 kilometres from the Nigerian Defence Academy in Kaduna.
Mohammed Jalige, police spokesman in the state, confirmed the incident to TheCable, and said efforts are ongoing to rescue the students.
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“The gunmen stormed the school around 3 am, and abducted a couple of the students. The police have deployed its operatives in the bush to trace them,” he said.
The attack is the latest in a series of the abduction of students and pupils by bandits operating across northern Nigeria.
In 2021, there have been two cases of the
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TheCable found that more than 1,100 children have been taken hostage from their schools in such attacks in the last seven years.
Several students of the Federal College of Forestry in Mando area, Kaduna State, have been kidnapped by gunmen, Channels reported Friday morning. Kaduna State Police spokesman Mohammed Jalige told Channels Television that the gunmen invaded the college at about 3 am to kidnap students. The number of kidnapped students still unknown. Jalige said that investigation […]