It is a black Monday in Nigeria, as gunmen turn their dragnets on educational institutions, kidnapping university students in South West Ogun State, and teachers and pupils in Kaduna in the north-central.
The Kaduna State Government on Monday said it has received security reports of kidnapping of some pupils and teachers in a primary school located in Rema, Birnin Gwari local government area.
This was announced by Samuel Aruwan, Commissioner, Ministry of Internal Security and Home Affairs, Kaduna, who said in a statement preliminary reports indicated that the incident took place at an LEA Primary School in the local government area
“The Kaduna State Government is currently obtaining details on the actual number of pupils and teachers reported to have been kidnapped and will issue a comprehensive statement as soon as possible,’ Aruwan said.
The bandits were said to have stormed the school in broad daylight and carted away a yet-to-be-determined number of pupils and teachers.
Aruwan added that “for now, we don’t know the number of people taken by the kidnappers. They came on motorcycles, about 20 motorcycles, which they used to carry the pupils and their teachers. As we speak, only two teachers have been confirmed to be among the victims, but for the pupils, we can’t say for now.”
The attack came barely a day after troops foiled an attempt by bandits to kidnap students of the Government Science Secondary School, GSSS, Ikara in Kaduna State in the early hours of Sunday.
The troops, alerted by the students through an alarm system installed at the school, enabled the troops to rescue 307 students unhurt, according to Aruwan.
In Ogun State, two female students of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ayetoro campus in Yewa-North Local Government Area of Ogun State were, were said to have been kidnapped on Sunday night, The Punch reported.
The victims, identified as Adeyemo Precious and Oyefule Abiola, are students at the departments of Forestry and Wildlife Management and Agricultural Economics, respectively.
They were reported to have been abducted in front of their hostel on Sunday night at Olowu area of Ayetoro, the paper added.
Punch quoted a source as saying that the abductors had reached out to the families and demanded a sum of N50m for the release of the students.
“The kidnappers have not spoken with the families. It was the students that spoke and echoed the demands. We don’t know whether they are Yoruba or Fulani because the families have not heard directly from the abductors,” the source said.
