Barely five days after some students of the College of Agriculture and Animals Science, Bakura in Zamfara State of Nigeria were released, gunmen on Wednesday, invaded the Government Day Secondary School, Kaya, in the Maradun Local Government Area of the same state, abducting about 73 students, while they were writing their examinations.
In its reaction to the latest incident, the Arewa Consultative Forum expressed sadness over the attack and abduction of the students.
While residents of the community claimed that 76 students were taken away by the bandits, the police confirmed the abduction of 73 from the school in the Maradun Local Government Area, where the governor hails from.
An indigene of Kaya, Mallam Abu Kaya, who confirmed the incident in an interview with The PUNCH, said although the number of the kidnapped students had yet to be ascertained, the victims could be more than 100.
He added that the school had a population of over 300 students and explained that the town was deserted due to the fear that the bandits could return to the area.
Abu said the gunmen came to the school on motorcycles.
“When they arrived at the school, they blocked some roads leading to the school and began to shoot indiscriminately in order to scare away residents of the town, while some moved into the school and took some of the students away,” he stated.
Speaking to The PUNCH on the telephone, an immediate past councilor from the area, Yahaya Kaya, said more than 100 students were not seen after the bandits had left
He explained that “as the remaining students returned to their respective homes, we discovered that 76 of them were in the bandits’ den.”
“My four children, Hafsat, Nusaiba, Haulatu and Aminatu, who are all females, are among those abducted,” the ex-councilor said.
Yahaya expressed displeasure over the incident, lamenting that the absence of security personnel in and around the school contributed to what happened to the students.
According to him, there was no single security agent attached to the school to secure both the staff members and the students in spite of the prevailing insecurity in the state.
Another resident, whose children were kidnapped, Mallam Sani Garba, said the terrorists were wielding AK-47 rifles. According to him, all those who were able to run out of the school were able to escape, because the gunmen did not pursue them.
Meanwhile, the governor of Zamfara State, Bello Muhammad Watawalle, has directed the people of the State to, henceforth, arm and defend themselves from further attacks, as the security agents seem overwhelmed by these murderers.
His Katsina State counterpart, Aminu Bello Masari, was recently in the news promoting the training of Katsina people to defend themselves against bandits who have been terrorizing the people and their communities.
