Kaduna: The Bandits Called Us to Say Our Children Are in Safe Hands, Says School Proprietor
- The armed bandits who abducted a large number of students in Kaduna state have contacted their school
- Rev Yahaya Adamu Jangado, the proprietor of Bethel Baptist High School, said the bandits told him on the phone that the students are safe
- The school official also revealed that after a head-count in the camp of the bandits, it was discovered that 121 of them were being held
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Kaduna - Reverend Yahaya Adamu Jangado, the proprietor of Bethel Baptist High School, Kaduna, on Tuesday, July 6 said that the bandits called the school authorities to say that the students are in safe hands.
According to the proprietor, the bandits gave him the opportunity to speak with a couple of the students, adding that 121 of them are being held hostage.
Source: Getty Images
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A tense situation for parents and school officials
Daily Sun newspaper quoted the proprietor as saying:
‘‘The bandits called us to say that our children are there with them, they are doing well, they are sound, we spoke with a few of them, that is the information for now.’’
Angry parents stage protest in Kaduna
In a related development, The Nation newspaper has shared a video of the parents of students in the school protesting over the mass abduction.
The parents accused authorities in Kaduna and the federal government of not doing enough to protect their children.
Abductions have become more indiscriminate across northern Nigeria as local criminal gangs view victims as a source of income.
The banditry violence, unconnected to the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast, began as a farmer-herder conflict in 2011 and intensified between 2017–2018 to include cattle rustling, kidnapping for ransom, and killings.
Legit.ng had earlier reported that bandits abducted an unspecified number of students from the Bethel Baptist School, a private college located at Maraban Rido area in Chikun local government area of Kaduna state.
The armed hoodlums attacked the school situated along Kaduna-Kachia road in the early hours of Monday, July 5.
The bandits shot sporadically into the air before kidnapping and taking the students to an undisclosed location.
Meanwhile, the Kaduna state government has ordered the immediate closure of 13 schools in locations vulnerable to bandit attacks.
The directive was issued by the Director-General of Quality Assurance Authority in the Kaduna state ministry of education, Umma Ahmed.
The notice was also sent to the proprietors of the private schools affected, stressing that the closure was with immediate effect.
Source: Legit.ng
