Parents and guardians of pupils of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara in Katsina State that were abducted by bandits last Friday, hit the street of the troubled town yesterday, demanding the immediate recovery of their children.
Moments after the protest rocked the town that is 100km from Katsina, the state capital, Governor Aminu Masari confirmed that 333 of the 839 pupils of the school are still unaccounted for.
The presidency, however, assured Nigerians yesterday that the rescue of the pupils would not be long as troops have surrounded the kidnappers in their hideout.
“Military commanders on the ground have the coordinates of where they believe the bandits are, and whoever they are holding. They have surrounded all of that area,” a presidential spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, told the BBC, stating that President Muhammadu Buhari, who comes from the state and is currently there on a private visit, is being briefed hourly on efforts to rescue the children.
“The criminal elements, bandits, will be crushed. They will be eliminated,” he said.
The bandits were said to have kidnapped hundreds of the school children, triggering an outrage in the state yesterday with protesters, including families of the pupils, marching on the streets, demanding that the government expedites actions to rescue the pupils.
Some of the parents and guardians also converged on the school to seek more information about their children and wards as well as to pray for the safe return of the pupils.
The federal government, which launched a rescue mission on Saturday, stepped up efforts to free the pupils as a contingent of security personnel were said to have surrounded the forest where the bandits are believed to be hiding.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai, has already relocated to Kankara to supervise the rescue mission.
Besides, Buhari sent a delegation, led by the Minister of Defence, Maj-Gen. Salihi Magashi (rtd.), to commiserate with the government and people of the state over the abduction.
Some 600 pupils were initially feared kidnapped, but the government said many of the 839 in the boarding school had been accounted for while hundreds of others were thought to have escaped from the bandits during a gunfight between the criminals and troops on Saturday.
Masari, while briefing the delegation, including security chiefs, on the sympathy visit, urged parents to assist the state government in accounting for the pupils by finding out from home if they had returned.
On the entourage of the minister were the Director-General, Department of State Security Service (DSS), Mr. Yusuf Bichi; Director-General, National Intelligence Agency, Mr. Ahmed Rufai; Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Ibok-Ekwe Ibas; Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Adamu and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, among others.
Masari said the children kidnapped cut across the state, because the school is a boarding school that houses children from all parts of the state and from outside the state.
He said: “The school has a population of 839 and so far, we are yet to account for 333 students and we are still counting because more are still coming out of the forest.
“We are also calling on parents, those parents that have phone numbers, to find out whether their children have gone back home because we have discovered that in so many local governments, the children have gone back but base on the records that we have, we are still searching for 333 children through parents and forests in order to ascertain the actual number that has been kidnapped.
“We as a government, we are yet to be contacted by any group or person. We prefer not to discuss this because we can be emotional.”
Earlier, Magashi assured the governor that the armed forces, police and other security agencies were working to rescue the pupils.
He said security agencies had intelligence information about the movement, whereabouts and methods of operations of the marauding bandits and would soon dislodge them and rescue their captives.
The minister charged security personnel in the state to immediately commence operations in flashpoints within Kankara Local Government Area and other adjoining forests in order to rescue the school children.
“The armed forces, police and other security agencies must move very fast to ensure that the students are rescued,” Magashi to Masari, adding: “We are doing this on the believe that if this kind of people are allowed to rest for a moment, it means we are equally condoning this kind of activities and the conclusion within most of the security agencies is that it is high time we declared this kind of people terrorists.”
He said the commanders on the ground, including the commissioner of police, GOC, brigade commander, air officers, DSS and other security officers have been briefed on what to do.
The minister said he was optimistic that the captives would be rescued shortly.
Magashi said: “With their briefing, this task is going to be very simple for us because in the next few hours, we will ensure that the students are back. We have strategised and I believed we can do it without any collateral damage on the people of Katsina State.
“We have intelligence information about their movement, whereabouts and methods of operations and we find out that this task will be very easy for the armed forces and the police to accomplish, but we need prayers so that there will be no collateral damage.”
Scores of protesters yesterday marched on the streets of Kankara, seeking an earnest rescuing of the school children.
The protesters were led by a woman, who described herself as a mother to one of the pupils.
The protesters bore placards conveying various messages, among which are ‘Government must speak out,’ ‘We want our children back’ and ‘We want security in Kankara.’
They chanted songs seeking the rescue of the abducted students.
Some of the parents also said they had heard little or nothing about the fate of their children.
Reuters reports that Mr. Abubakar Lawal came from Zaria, a city 120 kilometres (75 miles) south of Kankara, after learning that two of his three sons at the school were among the missing.
“From yesterday I was here, praying that the Almighty Allah should rescue our people,” he said.
One of his missing sons, 17-year-old Buhari, was named after the president. Anas, 16, was also missing.
Lawal said the school principal addressed parents, telling them to pray.
Ms. Murja Mohammed, whose son was also taken, begged authorities for help.
“If it’s not the government that will help us, we have no power to rescue our children,” she said.
More security personnel have been deployed in the state as the federal government steps up efforts at rescuing the school children, THISDAY gathered yesterday.
Helicopter gunships of the Air Task Force of Operation Hadarin Daji and police helicopters intensified aerial patrol to ensure the exact location of the abductors. – Thisday.
