Niger State Government is set to risk everything in all-out efforts to rescue abducted students of a school in Tegina.
The move by the government was consequent upon the reported breakdown of negotiations to free the students.
The government has reportedly massed security agents preparatory to storming the bushes in Niger State and environs to rescue and bring back the children.
The combined security forces, comprising the military, police, civil defense corps members, and Vigilance Corps members, as learnt, were set to begin the assault immediately after a meeting with state chief executive, Abubakar Sani Bello.
The students were abducted about three weeks ago.
There were reports that 15 of them had escaped between last Saturday and Sunday.
Governor Sani Bello disclosed the planned onslaught when he visited the security forces to boost their morale in Kagara the headquarters of Rafi local government area.
The governor said that it was time for government to take decisive action towards ending the bandits’ activities that were changing the lives of the people especially in the rural areas.
Read him: “We have to try our possible best not to make them succeed in forcing us to change our normal lives.
“They started by displacing farmers from their farmlands; next, they moved to burning farms; then, they moved to kidnapping and forcing us to close our schools; now they have started attacking Islamic schools, only God knows what is next.”
He told the special squad that logistics had been provided for them, promising that their allowances and other financial benefits would always be provided as and when due.
The Governor, who commended the security operatives, for their efforts in fighting the bandits in the last few weeks, however, mourned 20 Vigilance Corps members who were killed by the bandits in Magama Local Government.
He enjoined the Federal government to intensify efforts at ensuring that adequate measures were evolved in collaborating with her neigbouring countries, noting that from all indications, the bandits were foreigners.
The governor had met with parents of the abducted school children at the palace of the Emir of kagara, Alh Ahmed Gunna.
At the meeting, he urged them to exercise patience as government was exploring all avenues to see to the safe return of their children.
The Emir of Kagara, Alhaji Ahmad Garba, Attahiru II thanked the governor for all the support, especially in the area of security to the emirate and the support given to the family of the kidnapped school children.
Headmaster of Salihu Tanko Islamiyyah School Tegina, Mallam Abubakar Alhassan said the action of the government to go into full combat was a welcome development provided that the school children would be brought back safely.
Alh. Alhassan disclosed that 15 of the school’s teachers had escaped from the hands of their abductors in Zamfara state and were in a military facility in Birnin Gwari, Kaduna State.
They would be handed over to the Niger State Government soon, he added.
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