- CDS Musa
Over 280 pupils and teachers of Government Secondary School and LEA primary school at Kuriga, Kaduna State were abducted by bandits on Thursday, triggering national outrage.
The Jama’atu Nasril Islam, Amnesty International, the Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria, the Nigeria Union of Teachers, and the House of Representatives condemned the attack and asked the government to rescue the victims immediately
The bandits reportedly invaded the Kuriga area of the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State on Thursday, shooting at their victims before taking away at least 280 of the pupils and teachers from both schools.
The secondary school was relocated to the primary school on account of the insecurity in the council.
The incident occurred barely 24 hours after insurgents abducted 200 internally displaced women in Borno State.
The women were kidnapped in Ngala, the headquarters of Gambarou Ngala in Borno State while fetching firewood in the bush.
Penultimate Thursday, bandits invaded the Gonin-Gora in the same Chikun LGA, prompting residents to barricade the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway in protest against the abduction of an unspecified number of people in the area.
The kidnappers on Wednesday night through the early hours of Thursday had attacked the Kuriga community, kidnapping unspecified numbers of the residents.
A teacher in Government Secondary School Kuriga, Sani Abdullahi, narrated how the attack took place, adding that about 280 pupils and teachers were whisked away by the hoodlums.
This was just as the state Governor, Senator Uba Sani led senior government officials and heads of security agencies in the state to the scene of the attack on Thursday evening.
The governor assured the community that those abducted by the bloodthirsty bandits would return unhurt.
He said he had spoken to the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu on the matter and that security operatives had swung into action in search of the abducted pupils.
Narrating his ordeal during the governor’s visit, Abdullahi said, “I resumed school today (Thursday) at exactly 7:47am. I entered the acting principal’s office and signed. All of a sudden, the acting principal asked me to look at my back and when I turned, we discovered that bandits had surrounded the school premises.
“We became confused. We didn’t know where to go. Then, the bandits asked us to enter the bush, so we obeyed them because there were many and the pupils who were about 700 were following us. So, when we entered the bush, I was lucky to escape alongside many other people. [The Punch]
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