Abducted boys: Atiku assures parents of wards’ safety…as police announces return of 200 of the boys
Former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flag bearer and former Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has assured parents whose children were abducted from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, in Kankara Local Government Area of Katsina to bAbducted boys: Atiku assures parents of wards’ safety…as police announces return of 200 of the boy.
Alhaji Atiku gave this assurance Saturday on his twitter handle while urging the parents of the abducted boys to be calm as security operatives would give their best to ensure a safe rescue. He said, “My thoughts and prayers are with the abducted pupils of the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State.
“I urge their parents and guardians to exercise calm while we trust that security operatives would give their best to ensure a safe rescue.”
He however called on government not to spare any resources in ensuring the safety of the boys. “No resource should be spared in rescuing them,” he called.
Bandits had on Friday night invaded the school and kidnapped many students.
In a recent development, two hundred students that fled for safety on the night when bandits attacked have returned safely.
The new development was confirmed to newsmen on Saturday by the police spokesperson and principal of the school, Usman Abubakar. This is coming amid reports that hundreds of students were kidnapped during the raid.
As at the time of filing this report, the police and school authorities are yet to confirm reports of an abduction or casualties but the school principal, Abubakar said the management and the police are currently conducting a headcount of the students.
“Precisely we cannot ascertain the number of students kidnapped until later in the day as some of the students are now resurfacing from the nearby bush. We are currently taking the attendance. Some of them went straight to their various houses with their parents calling us that their children are at home,” Abubakar noted.
Giving his own account, the police spokesperson said, “What happened was that yesterday around 11:30 pm, we had a report that Bandits in their numbers armed with AK 47 Rifles attacked the Government Science Secondary School Kankara.
“There was opportunity that our policemen engaged the Bandits in a gun duel. Many of the students escaped from the school. This morning, the DPO found over 200 of the students and returned them back to the school. We are still counting the figures in order to ascertain whether or not actually the Bandits were able to kidnap any of the students.
“Already we have policemen that were posted in that school. So, there was exchange of fire between our policemen and the Bandits. In fact, they shot one of our policeman that got injured and he has been taken to the hospital and is responding to treatment.”
Armed with sophisticated weapons, the bandits stormed the school in their numbers and attacked the students in an operation that last about an hour.
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