From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
A Bethel Baptist High School teacher in Kaduna, Emmanuel Paul, said 140 students were abducted by bandits yesterday, just as angry parents staged a protest, blocking the Kaduna-Kachia highway and calling for a state of emergency in Kaduna State.
Paul said the bandits operated between 1am to 2am under heavy gunshots.
Meanwhile, parents who said they have had enough of attacks and kidnapping by bandits in their homes, said Governor Nasir El-Rufai has failed to protect lives and property in the State.
Security operatives were said to have rescued 26 of the kidnapped victims, but the parents insisted that the students escaped from their abductors on their own.
Speaking to newsmen, one of the parents, Caroline Emmanuel, said, “My only surviving child is among those kidnapped and the government is not doing anything about it.
“In fact, the students that they were claiming to have rescued, came back on their own. The security did not rescue anybody, because they have already started saying that soldiers rescued them and even soldiers were killed while rescuing the children. No soldier rescued any child.
“One thing should be noted, bandits have been killing us, they just entered the Nissi community for the last two weeks; they came to my house, I’m telling you what I know. They kidnapped people at Nissi, the bandits have been kidnapping people and killing them anyhow. We can’t even go to the farm, we can’t do anything again.
“Now they are coming to school, again. Enough is enough. Kaduna state should be declared a state of emergency, if El-Rufai cannot do anything.
“He has failed. He is not doing anything. They just come blowing sirens, they should go to the bush if they are serious.
“Since morning (yesterday), around 4am, that we’ve been here, no soldier or police has entered the bush in search of the kidnapped students. But they are here firing bullets at innocent parents that are just holding leaves. For what?
“What kind of mistrust and betrayal is this, a state of emergency should be declared in Kaduna State.”
Another parent, Esther Joseph said: “It was around 6am that they called and told me that they had kidnapped some students in Bethel school. I was calling the teachers and nobody picked my call, the security did not pick my call. It was the person I sent on Saturday to go see my daughter that I asked why the management of the school did not close the school and relocate to Ungwan Boro.
“Why did they not relocate the school, a school that is located where bandits are kidnapping people. They should close the schools.”
Meanwhile, Governor Nasir El-Rufai has described the development as unfortunate and an untold evil to humanity and the cause of education.
However, the Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, yesterday, said on June 5, 2021, he personally visited Bethel Baptist High School, Damishi, and implored the school authority to close the school due to credible intelligence reports of an imminent attack by bandits, but the school authority refused to act.