5 soldiers killed, 35 civilians abducted in 2 ISWAP attacks
On We’ve rescued 80 students, 4 others – Police Four killed in S’Kaduna reprisal attacks-as more troops are deployed to flashpoints High rate of kidnapping in Nigeria worrisome Archbishop Kaigama
By Kingsley Omonobi, Bashir Bello, Ibrahim HassanWuyo & Luminous Jannamike
Five soldiers were killed by Islamic State West Africa Province, ISWAP, in an ambush on a military convoy in Borno State, weekend.
ISWAP split from the mainstream Boko Haram six years ago and rose to become a dominant group.
This came as no fewer than 35 people were kidnapped on Friday, also by ISWAP militants at a fake checkpoint in Garin Kuturu village outside Jakana, 25 kilometres from Maiduguri, Borno State.
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The Police and the military on Sunday narrated how 80 pupils of Hizburrahim Islamiyya School in Mahuta village of Dandume Local Government Area of Katsina State, who were abducted by bandits on Saturday, were rescued, saying they achieved the feat after a gunfight.
The Islamic pupils were said to have been abducted while returning from Maulud celebration at Alkasim village of the local government area on Saturday night.
The abduction came barely a week after another group of bandits kidnapped 344 pupils of Government Science Secondary School Kankara, Katsina State on a day President Muhammadu Buhari arrived in Daura, his hometown in the state, on a week-long private visit.
By Tobias Lengnan Dapam
The Nigerian military said its troops of Operation HADARIN DAJI in conjunction with Police and local vigilante deployed at Dandume LGA of Katsina State, have rescued 39 kidnapped girls and rescued 8 rustled cattle. The military in a statement issued on Sunday, by Major General, John Enenche, Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Defence Headquarters, said the troops received a distress call at about 11:30 PM on 19 December 2020 from locals at Mahuta village that suspected bandits were moving with unconfirmed numbers of Islamiya children mostly girls and rustled cattle. He said the report indicated that the children were returning from Maulud programme at Unguwar Al- Kasim village at Dandume.
Kingsley Nwezeh, Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja and Francis Sardauna in Katsina
The Police and the military yesterday narrated how 80 pupils of Hizburrahim Islamiyya School in Mahuta village of Dandume Local Government Area of Katsina State, who were abducted by bandits on Saturday, were rescued, saying they achieved the feat after a gunfight.
The Islamic pupils were said to have been abducted while returning from Maulud celebration at Alkasim village of the local government area on Saturday night.
The abduction came barely a week after another group of bandits kidnapped 344 pupils of Government Science Secondary School Kankara, Katsina State on a day President Muhammadu Buhari arrived in Daura, his hometown in the state, on a week-long private visit.
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The Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Police Force have given conflicting figures on the number of rescued students of Hizburrahim Islamiyya, Mahuta village, Dandume LGA of Katsina State.
The rescue was said to have taken place on Saturday. While the police said they rescued 80 pupils, 12 cows; the army said it rescued 39 girls and eight cows.
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The police in their statement said, “On 19/12/2020 at about 2200hrs, a distress call was received by DPO Dandume, that some Islamiyya Students of Hizburrahim Islamiyya, Mahuta village, Dandume LGA of Katsina state, numbering about eighty (80), while on their way back from Maulud Occassion celebrated at Unguwan Alkasim village, Dandume to Mahuta, were accosted by bandits who had already kidnapped four(4) persons and rustled twelve (12) cows from Danbaure village, Funtua LGA, trying to escape into the forest.