Kaduna State Police command has confirmed the kidnapping of Mr. Francis Maji, Principal of Gov’t Technical College Kajuru in Kaduna State, following an attack on the school by gunmen, who reportedly invaded the school in the early hours of Thursday and broke into the principal’s house. This comes a week after bandits raided Engravers College, Kakau Daji in Chikun LGA, abducting six female students and two members of staff who are still in captivity.
The Police Command’s Deputy Public Relations Officer, ASP Suleiman Abubakar, confirmed the incident in a press statement on Thursday in Kaduna. Abubakar said the command received information through Divisional Police Officer of Kajuru, on Thursday about the invasion of the boarding school by a group of armed men.
He explained that the armed men shot sporadically and in the process abducted Maji. “The Police timely intervention helped in preventing the hoodlums from gaining access to the students’ hostel. The Command has also fortified security within the general area. The Commissioner of Police, CP Ali Janga assures the public that the Command is working round the clock to tame the recent change of tactics by the enemies of peace who now resort to soft targets.
“The CP called on the general public and particularly parents not to be deterred by the recent attacks by hoodlums on schools, as the Command is making relentless efforts to prevent future occurrence of the unfortunate incident. The Command is further assuring the good people of the state that it remained resolute in its commitment to the safety of all citizens, as that is, its onerous responsibility,” he added.
A resident around the school, who witnessed the incident, said the bandits arrived the school at about 12:45am and were shooting sporadically. He said although no student was abducted, the bandits broke into the principal’s house and took him away. He said people living around the school were terrified following the persistent shooting, adding that some of them ran into the bush for their dear lives. According to him, the operation lasted for over an hour, saying that by the time security agents arrived the school an hour later, the bandits had left.
“I live close to the school. They came at about 12:45am and were shooting sporadically. We thought they had come to raid the entire community. They were shooting at the principal’s house. ”The sound of gunshots woke everybody within the neighborhood. We didn’t sleep throughout the night. When I heard gun shots, I called one of my neighbors. “We became very terrified and I decided to run away from my house by scaling my fence. After a while, one of the teachers in the school called me and told me what was going on,” he said.
The resident said: “The bandits had difficulty breaking the door to the principal’s house because the door had very strong padlocks, so it took them some time to break it. Two years back, they kidnapped the wife of the principal. So after that incident, the principal took steps to fortify the house by installing strong padlock.
“The operation lasted for about an hour. The entire community was helpless; we could not do anything because we don’t have any weapon to confront them. No student was abducted because of the alarm raised by the community, people were shouting. They only abducted the principal and left. An hour after they left, the security personnel arrived.”
While lamenting the increasing rate of kidnapping in the state, he called on the government to address the ugly trend. ”We are appealing to government to do something about these ugly incidents otherwise they should allow everybody to carry gun so that we will defend ourselves from these criminals. Once the bandits know that we also have arms, they will not just come and be abducting people,” he said.
