No fewer than 23 abducted Zamfara students have escaped from bandits’ enclave- two of them with gunshot injuries.
They were among the 73 students kidnapped from Kaya Junior Secondary School, Maradun LGA.
“The abducted students are aged between 14 and 19. We strongly condemn this attack, which has happened just a few days after kidnapped students of a school in Niger State, north-central Nigeria, were freed,” said Peter Hawkins, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, yesterday.
The bandits had on Wednesday morning abducted students from the school located in Governor Bello Matawalle’s hometown.
“The gunmen who were in large number came to Kaya Junior Secondary School and abduct large number of students,” a source had said.
A teacher in the school had revealed that he and others managed to escape by running away under the cover of farms near the school.
He disclosed that the bandits stormed the school in the hours of 11 am and 12 pm.
Speaking to BBC Hausa, yesterday, father of one of the escaped students, all women, said his daughter returned home around 1am.
He said his daughter told him that the bandits divided them into two groups, and in the process of dividing them, she and four others escaped.
He added that two of the children who escaped are currently being treated at a hospital.
Meanwhile, the House of Assembly has called on the state and federal governments to put more efforts to end the worsening security situation in the state.
The assembly during its plenary resolved to call on governments to do more to curtail the decade-old security challenge in Zamfara.
The resolution followed a motion raised by the House Majority Leader, Alhaji Faruk Dosara, under matters of urgent public importance.
Dosara commended the state government for enforcing emergency security measures aimed at curtailing the activities of bandits.
He called on the people to cooperate with the government and security agencies.
“As the representatives of people at the grassroots, members of the House are in in full support of the government’s laudable security initiatives aimed at getting to the root of the security menace that had crippled almost all facets of economic activity of our dear state”, the majority leader said.
After members spoke on the motion, the Deputy Speaker, Alhaji Musa Bawa, commended them for their positive contributions.