Buhari orders security agencies to rescue 200 Islamic students from bandits
President Muhammadu Buhari has charged the nation’s security and intelligence agencies to expedite efforts towards the recovery of the 200 children kidnapped from an Islamic school in Niger state.
According to a statement by his spokesperson, Garba Shehu, Mr Buhari, who received briefing on the latest incident of school kidnapping, condemned as unfortunate, the kidnapping of children from schools, and urged all the agencies involved in the rescue operation to do their utmost in securing their immediate release.
He also directed the concerned government agencies to extend possible support to the families of the kidnapped children.
Armed bandits on Sunday abducted many pupils of the Islamic school in Tegina, a densely populated town in Rafi local government area of Niger state.
The bandits reportedly seized the police station in the town and went round the town shooting sporadically into the air to scare residents before breaking into a private school where they abducted children attending Islamic lectures.
The school, which consists of nursery and primary schools, also hosts Islamiyya students in the evening and at weekends.
Eleven of the kidnapped students were later released by their abductors because they were too young and could not work, according to the Niger State Government.
The mass abduction of the Islamic school students was the second in Rafi local government area in six months.
Dozens of students were earlier in the year kidnapped at Government Science College (GSC) Kagara but were later released after negotiation with the state government.
Asides from the attack on schools, several residents across different local government areas of the state have been displaced after the invasion of bandits.
Apart ftom Niger, mass kidnapping of students have occurred in many other Northern Nigerian states including Kaduna, Zamfara, Katsina, Borno and Yobe.
