An unspecified number of school children have reportedly been kidnapped in the Emure Local Government Area of Ekiti State, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
The incident occurred around the same time when gunmen, suspected to be kidnappers, attempted to abduct three Ekiti traditional rulers, later killing two of them.
One of the traditional rulers was said to have escaped the scene mysteriously.
Gov. Biodun Oyebanji, while confirming the abduction of the children on Tuesday, promised to deploy all possible apparatus to find the criminals responsible and bring them to justice.
NAN reports that the school, Apostolic Faith Nursery/Primary School, located in Emure-Ekiti, had its school bus, conveying the pupils, attacked on Monday evening.
Local sources, who spoke to NAN about the incident, said the bus was near the Eporo Ekiti town boundary when the incident occurred.
Reacting, Oyebanji, through Mr. Yinka Oyebode, his Special Adviser on Media and Strategy, called for calm, stating that the state government would do everything humanly possible to rescue the pupils.
He urged citizens of the state not to lose hope over the kidnapping of the pupils and their teachers, assuring that efforts were underway to rescue them.
The governor’s statement also clarified that some pupils of the private school in Emure-Ekiti, along with their teachers and the bus driver, were abducted while returning to Eporo-Ekiti on Monday evening.
The governor, who described the kidnapping of the pupils as callous and unacceptable, said nothing would be spared in the efforts to rescue them.
He assured that security agencies in the state were already on the trail of the abductors, with a mandate to bring the pupils and their teachers back safely.
He added that security was being stepped up across the state, with the goal of flushing out criminal elements from their hideouts.
While calling on citizens to remain calm and vigilant, he urged them to cooperate with security agencies by providing relevant information to the authorities.
The police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Sunday Abutu, could not comment on the matter as he was engaged in an emergency security meeting with Gov. Oyebanji over the abduction.
The governor had called an emergency meeting with all security apparatuses in the state in response to the unfortunate situation. (NAN)
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