THERE was palpable anger and apprehension on Thursday, March 7 in Kaduna State, as about 280 pupils and teachers of Government Secondary School and LEA Primary School at Kuriga, Kaduna State, were abducted by bandits.

The gunmen reportedly invaded the schools immediately after the morning assembly.

   At the time of the attack, Governor Uba Sani was among dignitaries at the 2023 Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership Conference in Lagos, but he had to hurry back home once he was informed about the incident.

A teacher at Government Secondary School Kuriga in Chikun Local Council, Sani Abdullahi, while narrating how the incident happened to Sani, led senior government officials and security top brass to the scene on Thursday evening, said: “I resumed to the school today at exactly 7:47am. I entered the acting Principal’s office and signed.

“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.

“We became confused; we didn’t know where to go. Then the bandits asked us to enter the bush, so we obeyed them, because they were many in number and the pupils were about 700 following us.   

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 vigilantes and personnel of KADVS pursued the bandits, but the vigilante did not succeed. In fact, the bandits killed one of the vigilantes, we just buried him.

“It was when we came back from their pursuit that we briefed the village head and we started making efforts to know the actual number of pupils and teachers taken away by the bandits. 

“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.”

  The House of Representatives has condemned the attack and charged the government to rescue the victims immediately.

Addressing the community members during his visit to the scene of the attack, the governor said his government would ensure that the abducted pupils returned unhurt, adding: “In my capacity as your elected governor, I am assuring you that by the grace of God, all the children will return unhurt.

“Before coming here, I spoke with the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and we are making efforts, the security forces have swung into action, and by God’s grace, we will rescue the children.”

   In a reaction on its X handle, Amnesty International Nigeria expressed grief, saying no child should have to choose between his/her education and his/her life, while urging the government to arrest the perpetrators.

“Amnesty International condemns the appalling abduction of 200 primary and secondary school students and their teachers in #Kuriga Kaduna state.   

“We are calling on the Nigerian authorities to safely rescue the students and hold the suspected perpetrators.”

The incident happened barely 24 hours after insurgents abducted 200 internally displaced women while fetching firewood in the bush in Ngala, headquarters of Gambarou Ngala in Borno State.

Bandits had earlier invaded Gonin-Gora, also in Chikum Local Council, forcing residents to barricade the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway in protest against the abduction of an unspecified number of people in the area.