Some 333 students of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara are yet to be accounted for, two days after an attack on the institution Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State said on Sunday.
Masari made the disclosure in Katsina during a visit by the military top brass, led by the Minister of Defence, Gen. Salihi Magashi (retd.), on a sympathy visit to the state after the bandits abducted an unspecified number of students from the school.
Those on the team included the Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Air Staff, and the Director-General, National Intelligence Agency.
“The children so far kidnapped cut across the state because the boarding school houses all children from all parts of the state and some even from outside the state,” Masari said.
“It has a population of 839 and so far we are yet to account for 333 students. We are still counting because more are coming out from the forest and we are calling those parents that have phone numbers to find out whether or not their children have gone back home.
“Based on the available record we have, we are still searching for 333 students through either the forest or their parents to ascertain the actual number that has been kidnapped.”
Masari said the bandits were yet to contact either the government or anybody on the abduction.
He assured that efforts were being made to ensure the students’ release.
“We, as a government, are yet to be contacted by any group or person responsible for the kidnap of the students,” the governor said.
General Magashi, in his response, assured the state of the Federal Government’s assistance.
“I was here around August on the same kind of mission to sympathise with the government regarding the farmers-herders’ clashes. Today, we are here also to sympathise with you over the recent abduction of secondary school students which is a more or less ruthless exercise conducted to temper with the education of the students.”
Speaking with journalists on Saturday, Masari said 426 students had been counted as safe.
“This incident has gone beyond imagination,” he said in Hausa.
“For us, it’s highly worrisome and disturbing. I am assuring parents and guardians of these children that – we couldn’t say that we are more disturbed than them – but to rest assured that we share the same worries with them, because we know that we have the responsibility to protect their lives and their health.”
Meanwhile the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has said the attack on the school is a failure of the security system in the country.
Kola Ologbondiyan, spokesman of the PDP, at a press conference in Abuja, asked President Buhari “who promised to lead from the front, to account for the abducted students, as the large-scale abduction happened a few hours after the President and his security machinery took over the state.”
“Our party holds as perplexing that at a time the people of Katsina should have heaved a sigh of relief because of his presence, the abduction happened right under Mr. President’s nose, in his home state where he had gone holidaying.
“This development has further exposed the failure of President Buhari to manage high level security intelligence that ought to accompany a presidential visit.
“The time of the attack buttresses the fact that President Buhari, as the commander-in-chief, is totally incapable of securing our nation; the very reason there have been widespread calls by patriotic Nigerians that he should resign.
“This insolence of Mr. President towards issues of national security compelled our caucus in the House of Representatives to demand for his impeachment.
“Our party believes that if President Buhari had listened to wise counsel as proffered by the PDP and other patriotic Nigerians including the two chambers of the National Assembly to rejig the nation’s security architecture, our situation would not have deteriorated to this sorry state.
“Moreover, this particular abduction in the President’s home state, under his watch, raises further serious questions over this government’s capacity to fight insurgency.
“This is more worrisome as the state government had been known to have established contacts with, as well as pampering bandits, which Mr. President had not condemned.”
The main opposition party called on the President Buhari to immediately quit his “needless holidaying” in Daura and go in search of the abducted pupils.
PDP asked Buhari to ensure that the abducted pupils were rescued, to match his oft repeated insistence that issues of security remain his exclusive responsibility.
“Our party sympathises with the people of Katsina State, particularly the parents of the kidnapped students, who have been subjected to harrowing experience occasioned by the incompetence of the Buhari administration.
“The PDP, working in concert with other patriotic Nigerians will not rest until President Buhari finds and returns each of these students,” the party said.
