How 280 school children were abducted in Kaduna on Thursday

Over 280 pupils and teachers of Government Secondary School and LEA primary school at Kuriga, Kaduna State were abducted by bandits on Thursday.

The bandits reportedly invaded the Kuriga area of the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State on Thursday, shooting at their victims before taking away at least 280 of the pupils and teachers from both schools.

A teacher in Government Secondary School Kuriga, Sani Abdullahi, narrated how the attack took place, adding that about 280 pupils and teachers were whisked away by the hoodlums.

Narrating his ordeal during the governor’s visit, Abdullahi said, “I resumed school today (Thursday) 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 there 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 (Kaduna State Vigilante Service) followed the bandits, but the vigilante did not succeed the bandits killed one of the vigilantes; we just buried him a short while ago.’’

The teacher explained that the vigilantes were making efforts to identify those kidnapped by the bandits.

“It was when we came back from that pursuit that we briefed the village head and we started making efforts to know the 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,” he recounted.

According to him, “over 280 pupils and teachers were taken away.’’

It was also gathered that the head teacher of the school as well as some other staff members were among those abducted by the hoodlums.

It was learnt that the incident happened around 8am shortly after morning assembly.

Punch