Katsina Attack: Defense Spokesman Says One Student Has Escaped From Abductors

One of the schoolchildren kidnapped by bandits in Kankara, Katsina State has escaped from the abductors. 

“Out of that 333, before I came into the studio, one escaped out of wherever they kept them,” the Coordinator of Defence Media Operations, Major General John Enenche said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday.

He also confirmed that three hundred and thirty-three students were missing following the attack on Government Science Secondary School on Friday night.

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“The principal reported that he had 839 in the boarding house; and as at the time they were abducted, shortly after that, some came back and it was about five hundred plus that did not return,” he noted, corroborating the figure earlier released by the Katsina State Government.

Enenche who said the kidnappers ferried the student away from the school via motorcycles, explained that security agencies are working to ensure the students are rescued alive.

A resident of Kankara claims the incident is a reprisal attack.

“There is something people are yet to know; before the recent abduction of Ƙankara Secondary School students, the bandits had on Wednesday attacked ‘Yar-Kuka village and killed 12 people and abducted an unspecified number of people in the village.

“On Thursday, vigilante group mobilised and went after the bandits in their hideouts and engaged in burning down the Fulani houses, injuring and killing some of them,” the resident said.

On Friday evening, gunmen attacked Government Science Secondary School in the Kankara council area of the north-west state, kidnapping scores of students.

VIDEO: The Minister of Defence, Major General Bashir Magashi, says all the schoolboys will return home in the next few hours.

The incident has continued to draw condemnation from several quarters with the UN calling for the unconditional release of the students.

“The Secretary-General calls for the immediate and unconditional release of the abducted children and for their safe return to their families. He reiterates that attacks on schools and other educational facilities constitute a grave violation of human rights. He urges the Nigerian authorities to bring those responsible for this act to justice,” the organisation said in a statement on Monday.