Sani Abdullahi, one of the teachers of the Government Secondary School Kuriga in Chikun local government area of Kaduna State, where pupils were kidnapped by bandits on Thursday morning, has provided graphical details of how the assailants invaded the joint secondary and primary school and whisked away about 280 pupils and teachers.
Abdullahi narrated the incident when the State governor, Senator Uba Sani, led senior government officials and security top brass to the scene of the kidnapping on Thursday evening.
According to the teacher: “I resumed to the school today 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 they were many in number and the pupils were about 700 following us. So, when we entered the bush, I was lucky to escape alongside many other people.
“So, I returned to the village and reported what happened to the community. So, immediately, our vigilantes and personnel of KADVS pursued the bandits, but the vigilante did not succeed. In fact, the bandits killed one of the vigilantes, we just buried him.
“It was when we came back from their pursuit that we briefed the Village Head and we started making efforts to know the actual number of pupils and teachers taken away by the bandits.
“At GSS Kuriga, 187 students are presently missing. In the primary school, 125 pupils were initially missing, but 25 of them escaped and returned home,” he narrated.
Meanwhile, Kaduna State governor, Uba Sani, has said that with the assurance of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, alongside with security agencies, the kidnapped students of LEA Primary School Kuriga will come back home.
Governor Sani, who stormed the Kuriga community in the evening of Thursday to assess the situation, said security agencies were working round the clock to rescue the kidnapped students.
Sani, in a brief interview with journalists in the village, said: “In my capacity as your elected governor, I am assuring you that, by the grace of God, all the children will return unhurt.
“Before coming here, I spoke with the National Security Adviser (NSA), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, and we are making efforts, the security forces have swung into action and by God’s grace, we will rescue the children.
“We will do whatever we need to do to ensure safe return of these children, even if it means coming to Kuriga to stay with you. The essence of government is protection of citizens’ lives and property. We recognise the fact that we are holding this position in trust for the people and by God’s grace, we will protect the citizens’ rights.
“I am one of the prominent voices on the issue of security. When I was in the Senate, I moved the motion for the creation of State Police. We have realised that, there are not enough boots on ground, that is why we feel that with State Police, every community like Kuriga will have people in the Police and they would be armed with AK47 rifles. That is the only way we would be able to protect the lives and property of the citizens.
“The vigilantes are not as armed as the bandits, because they do not have AK47, that is why the bandits are constantly causing us destructions. They come in to humiliate, kill and abduct our citizens,” the governor lamented.
