How bandits moved kidnapped Katsina schoolchildren— Defence HQ

By EMMANUEL EGOBIAMBU 

The Nigerian Army on Monday gave more insight on the abduction of schoolchildren in Kankara Local Government Area of Katsina State.

The Coordinator of Defence Media Operations, Major General John Enenche, explained that the bandits moved the abducted students from their hostels via motorcycles.

“They were moved on the motorcycles they (gunmen) brought and after a short distance, some of them continued with the motorcycles, others dismounted,” Major General Enenche explained on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

According to him, “That is their usual characteristics – those abductors. It is the same system; the same approach they used. There was no evidence, no information about them using other modes of transport.”

Enenche also corroborated the figure earlier given by Governor Bello Masari of Katsina State on the number of students missing following the attack which took place on Friday night.

“As at 2 pm yesterday (Sunday), the students that could not be accounted for reduced to 333,” he added.  “Out of that 333, before I came into the studio, one escaped out of wherever they kept them.”

As efforts to rescue the students of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara in the north-western state intensify, Governor Masari on Monday said the abductors had contacted them.

“The Governor, who was accompanied by the Deputy Governor of the state, Manir Yakubu, said the kidnappers had made contact and discussions were already on pertaining to safety and return to their homes,” the Senior Special Assistant to the President, Garba Shehu said in a statement after Masari’s visit to President Muhammadu Buhari in Daura.

Masari, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, expressed optimism that with the efforts put so far, “the outlook is positive.”

The 70-year-old former Speaker of the House of Representatives stated that it was only appropriate to visit the president and give him more details of rescue efforts.

Counting Ongoing

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

Initially, there were conflicting figures as to the number of students abducted during the attack but two days after the incident – Sunday – Governor Masari confirmed that three hundred and three schoolchildren were missing from the school.

“We are still counting because more are coming out from the forest and we are calling through the numbers those parents that have phone numbers to find out whether or not their children have gone back home,” he said when he received a federal government delegation led by the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno. (Channels TV)