TheCable

Fourteen of the abducted students of Greenfield University in Kaduna state have regained their freedom.

TheCable understands they were released on Saturday along the Kaduna-Abuja highway.

Mohammad Jalige, spokesman of the Kaduna state police command, also confirmed the development to TheCable.

The students were abducted on April 18 when suspected bandits attacked the institution.

Three of them are still being held — almost six weeks after their kidnap.

The suspected bandits had killed five of the students and threatened to kill the others if a ransom of N100 million and 10 motorcycles are not delivered to them

It is still not clear yet if the ransom was eventually paid to secure their freedom.

Jalige did not immediately provide details on how the students were released.

“Fourteen of the students have been released this evening, remaining three students are in captivity”, he told TheCable via phone.

Mohammed Bashir, the school registrar, also said they are in the process of receiving the students.

It had been widely reported that their abductors were bandits who are notorious for attacking schools and remote communities across states in the north.

But Ahmad Gumi, a prominent Islamic cleric who is known to have access to the bandits, said the students were kidnapped by Boko Haram insurgents.

He had said: “We have two groups of bandits. We have the ordinary Fulani ethnic herdsmen and now there is another element which is coming in, it is the terrorist, the religious idealogues and this is what I’ve been fearing.

“The issue is getting compounded because this element is coming in; Boko Haram is coming into the scene now. They are the ones that captured Greenfield students. It is not a question of sleeping. You have to act very fast.”