TROOPS of Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK) have rescued 10 National Examination Council (NECO) candidates and teachers abducted during a terrorist attack on a secondary school in Lassa community, Askira/Uba Local Council of Borno State.
Similarly, the Oyo State Police Command, in a separately operation, rescued two abducted children and dismantled a kidnapping syndicate in the Ibarapa axis.
Acting Military Information Officer of OPHK, Capt. Mohammed Goni, said in a statement late on Monday, June 29, that suspected Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists, travelling in motorcycles, stormed the Technical Secondary School in Lassa, near the Adamawa State border, about 9am, while students were sitting their NECO examinations, killing a teacher and abducting an unspecified number of students and teachers.
He said the Theatre Command immediately deployed troops and scrambled strike and Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft from the Air Component of Operation Hadin Kai to support a coordinated search-and-rescue mission, he said.
According to Goni, troops made contact with the terrorists around Daggu, and in the ensuing firefight, rescued 10 victims unharmed and were receiving care, while seven motorcycles used in the attack were recovered.
He noted that during the intense firefight, one gallant soldier of Operation Hadin Kai and a member of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) paid the supreme sacrifice in the course of defending innocent civilians, adding that efforts were ongoing to rescue the remaining abductees and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Goni stated that operations against the terrorists responsible for the attack had been intensified and security measures strengthened across vulnerable communities and schools in the area, describing the attack as evidence of the desperation of terrorist groups which, under sustained military pressure, had increasingly targeted soft civilian populations.
The latest attack came barely a month after suspected Boko Haram insurgents abducted 42 students from Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School in the same local council.
In Oyo State, the Police rescued two children who were abducted when a gang of heavily armed men stormed Ebinpejo Village, near Lanlate in Ibarapa East Local Council on Friday, June 26, ransacking houses and assaulting residents.
The Command’s spokesman, Ayanlade Olayinka (DSP), said the Commissioner of Police, Abimbola Olugbenga, ordered a massive manhunt, directing the Divisional Police Officer in Lanlate to mobilise a joint security team, comprising Police operatives, Amotekun Corps, local vigilantes and hunters to comb the forest.
He explained that the joint team traced the abductors to their hideout deep in the forest, who on sighting the advancing security team, opened fire, triggering a gun duel in which a 25-year-old suspect, Umaru Usman, sustained gunshot wounds and was arrested, with three mobile phones recovered.
Olayinka noted that a follow-up operation on Saturday morning led to the arrest of 28-year-old Abdullahi Ahmed, who also bore gunshot wounds from the previous encounter.
Operatives, he added, subsequently arrested 30-year-old Sunday Idowu, who allegedly provided logistics for the gang, as well as 29-year-old Muhammed Ibrahim Shina, who reportedly travelled from Ilorin, Kwara State, to participate in the crime.
He said the rescued children have been reunited with their family after receiving medical attention.
