TheCable

Ishaya Jangado, president of Kaduna Baptist Conference, says the Bethel Baptist High School students still in captivity will be released in batches.

A total of 121 students were abducted when bandits invaded the school on July 5.

The bandits had earlier released one of the students based on health grounds while two others were rescued by the police.

Twenty-eight students were dropped off on Saturday night at a location along Kaduna-Abuja road, after which vigilantes took them to 1 Division, Nigerian army.

Leaders of the Baptist Church led by Isreal Akanji, president of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, picked them up from the army division on Sunday.

They were later reunited with their parents at the school premises.

‘WE’RE STILL EXPECTING 87 STUDENTS’

However, many of the parents were unhappy as their children were not among those released.

“I have been talking with the bandits and they told me that the children would be released in batches and they have released the first batch of 28,” Jangado said.

“I appealed to parents whose children are not among the first batch not to despair as they will be released too by the grace of God. If your child is not among those released don’t be disappointed, let’s keep praying.”

On his part, Akanji said “a lot of efforts were made to ensure the release of the students. The number one effort was prayers, we prayed and prayed.

“We spoke to security agents, we spoke to the governor of Kaduna state and he promised that he was going to do his best to ensure the release of the children.

“We have waited, it is about three weeks now and finally we are grateful that we have this batch that has come.

“All together we have received 34 students out of the 121. We are still expecting 87 who have not come back yet.

“The children were just released by the people who abducted them. They kept them in a place and they called us and we went and carried them in our vehicles and brought them.

“Our prayer is that they will release the remaining students”.

‘NO RANSOM WAS PAID’

Akanji maintained that the church did not pay any ransom to the bandits.

“I don’t know where you got your information. I have heard a lot of information in the media. Some said we paid N60 million, some said we paid N100m,” he said.

“What we said is that as a church, we will not pay ransom because it is not right to pay people who have done what is wrong.

“I cannot answer for those who probably must have been involved in certain ways.”

No government official or security agency was present as the leaders of the church drove the students straight to the school and handed them to their parents.