For the past 48 hours, there have been no reports of students being abducted by gunmen from Kankara Secondary School in Katsina State in northern Nigeria.
Pictures posted on social media show a woman leading a protest in Katsina to pressure the government to save their children.
Gunmen stormed a boys’ high school in Dankara on Friday night and abducted students.
Sources said there were more than 600 students at the time of the attack, but Katsina police spokesman DSP Gambo Isa told the BBC that more than 200 students had already been identified.
The parents of the students are waiting in anticipation of their children’s story, while the Nigerian presidency says troops and police have been deployed to rescue them.
A statement issued by Malam Garba Shehu on Saturday said the hideouts of the attackers had been identified and they had clashed with security forces.
The police said one of the attackers was killed and one of its officers was injured, while the Inspector General of Police sent additional officers to rescue the students.
Nigerians and parents of students are awaiting notification from the federal or Katsina state government on the status of the Kankara school dropout.
President Buhari has condemned the abductions but his government is under increasing pressure, especially over the deteriorating security situation in northern Nigeria.
The kidnapping comes after late last month, Boko Haram militants slaughtered sheep in northeastern Borno State.
333 students missing – State Government
On Sunday, Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari has confirmed that 333 students are missing following an attack on Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina on Friday night.
The governor gave the figure when he received a Federal Government delegation led by the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno.
The governor who explained that the school has a population of 839 students said so far, those kidnapped cut across the state with the boarding school housing all children from all parts of the state and outside the state.
“Based on the available record we have, we are still searching for 333 students through either the forest or their parents to ascertain the actual number that have been kidnapped,” Governor Masari said.
“We are still counting because more are coming out from the forest and we are calling through the numbers those parents that have phone numbers to find out whether or not their children have gone back home.
“We as government we are yet to be contacted by any group or person responsible for the kidnap of the students.”
Women and Children protests
Protests on Sunday rocked Kastina State over the abduction of many schoolboys from the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara in the Kankara Local Government Area of the state
The protesters, mostly women, demanded the prompt rescue of students abducted by bandits on Friday night.
Carrying placards, the protesters went around the school’s premises and some parts of the town conveying various messages.
Some of the inscriptions on the placards include: ‘Government must speak out’, ‘We want our children back’ and ‘We want security in Kankara’.
Opposition PDP wants answers
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned, the gruesome attack on Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina state, by bandits, leading to the reported deaths and abduction of scores of students.
In a communique by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP said it is standing with the entire Katsina people to charge President Muhammadu Buhari, as the Commander-in-chief, “who promised to lead from the front, to account for the abducted students, as the large-scale abduction happened a few hours after the President and his security machinery took over the state”.
The party held as perplexing that at a time the people of Katsina should have heaved a sigh of relief because of his presence, the abduction happened right under Mr. President’s nose; in his home state, where he had gone holidaying.
Mr Ologbondiyan’s communique further claimed that this development has further “exposed the failure of President Buhari to manage high-level security intelligence that ought to accompany a presidential visit”.
Kidnappings in Nigeria
This is not the first time students have been targeted by Nigerian armed groups, on the night of 14–15 April 2014, 276 mostly Christian female students were kidnapped from the Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria.
Criminal gangs carrying out robberies and kidnappings have killed hundreds and abducted a hundred more over the last months in Buhari’s home state forcing residents to protest against the state of insecurity.
The borders are porous and the vast forest reserves in the border regions have been turned into operational bases for the bandits.
Responsibility for the kidnappings was claimed by Boko Haram, an Islamist extremist terrorist organization based in northeastern Nigeria.
On February 19, 2018 at 5:30 pm, 110 schoolgirls aged 11–19 years old were kidnapped by the Boko Haram terrorist group from the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College (GGSTC). Dapchi is located in Bulabulin, Yunusari Local Government area of Yobe State, also in the northeast part of Nigeria.
