TheCable

Sani Abdullahi, a teacher at the Government Secondary School Kuriga, Chikun LGA of Kaduna, says 287 students are missing after bandits attacked the community on Thursday morning.

Abdullahi, who spoke when Uba Sani, governor of Kaduna, visited the community after the incident, said bandits invaded the primary and secondary schools at about 8am.

The teacher said a member of the Kaduna State Vigilante Service (KADVS) was killed by the bandits when he attempted to confront them.

“At GSS Kuriga, 187 students are presently missing. In the primary school, 125 pupils were initially missing, but, 25 of them escaped and returned home,” Abdullahi told the governor.

The teacher said he resumed work by 7:47 am and entered the acting principal’s office to sign the staff register when the bandits surrounded the school premises.

“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,” Abdullahi said.

“We became confused, we didn’t know where to go. Then, the bandits ordered us to enter the bush, so we obeyed them because they were many.

“So, when we entered the bush, I was lucky to escape alongside many other people. I returned to the village and reported what happened to the community.

“Immediately our vigilante and personnel of Kaduna 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.

“It was when we came back that we briefed the village head and we started making efforts to find out the actual number of pupils and teachers taken by the bandits.”

Commenting on the attack, the governor of Kaduna said: “Since I received the sad news of this incident, I have not had rest of mind because every child in Kaduna state is my child. So, I don’t want you people to be disturbed.

“Let us pray to God to help and on our part as a government, we will not rest until these children return home.”

He promised to establish a police station and build a permanent camp for the military in the community.

The Kaduna governor said he had briefed Nuhu Ribadu, the national security adviser (NSA), about the attack.

He said efforts are being made to deploy security forces to rescue the children.

“We will do whatever we need to do to ensure the safe return of these children, even if it means coming to Kuriga to stay with you,” Sani said.