KADUNA: IGP Meets With Governor Sani, Pledges To Free 287 Kidnapped Pupils

Uba Sani, Kaduna State Governor

On Tuesday, the state governor, Uba Sani, and the inspector general of police, Kayode Egbetokun, met at the government house in Kaduna State regarding the recent kidnapping of 287 elementary and secondary school students from the Kuriga community in the state's Chikun Local Government Area.

The Chief of Staff to Governor Sani Kila and Speaker of the State House of Assembly Yusuf Liman welcomed the IGP upon his arrival.

Speaking at the event, the IGP declared that in order to save the victims, the Police High Command will employ every tactic at its disposal, both kinetic and non-kinetic.

He says extra mobile police officers and special forces will be sent right away to Kaduna's vulnerable districts and impacted communities to help quell the threat of kidnappings, banditry, and terrorism.

The visit by Egbetokun comes after the pupils were abducted from their schools on Thursday.

Sani Abdullahi, a teacher at one of the schools targeted by the bandits, revealed how he was able to flee into the jungle during the ordeal. He also mentioned that, of the 287 children, 100 were taken from the basic school and 187 from the secondary school. The two schools are housed on the same property.

“I resumed to the school today at exactly 7.47 a.m. I entered the Acting Principal's office and signed. All of a sudden the Acting Principal asked me to look behind me and when I turned, we discovered that bandits had surrounded the school premises. We became confused and didn't know where to go.

“Then, the bandits asked us to enter the bush, so we obeyed them because they were many, and the pupils who were about 700 were 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 vigilante and personnel of KADVS followed the bandits, but the vigilante did not succeed. The bandits killed one of the vigilantes, we just buried him.

“It was when we came back from that 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 retired home.”