Six hundred and sixty-eight students of the Government Secondary School Kankara, Katsina State are still missing, the school’s register has shown.
DailyTrust reporter, who was at the school yesterday gathered that at the time of the incident, the school had 1,074 students in both its Junior and Senior Secondary sections in session.
A source in the school told the Newspaper, “in the junior section, there are six classes, comprising JSS 1A, which has 58 students, 1B, which has 62 students and 1C, which has 64 students; JSS 2A has 74 students, 2B has 79 students and 2C has 75 students.
“As for the senior section, we have seven classes, which include SS1A, 97; 1B, 108; 1C, 106 and 1D, 118. While in SS2, we have 2A, 74; 2B, 79 and 2C, 80, giving a total of 1074 students.”
The source added that both SS3 and JSS 3 students have completed their exams, hence they were not in school during the attack.
The Newspaper also gathered that 270 students were rescued from the school on the night of the attack and with the number of those who returned from the bush the following night or those who were reported to have gone home by their parents, the number of those found rose to 406 as on Sunday morning.
However, the Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari, yesterday said 333 students were still missing as against 668 found by Daily Trust during interactions with sources in the school.
Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari, has disagreed with Katsina State Governor, Bello Masari, over the number of boys abducted from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State.
BBC Hausa Service, in a bulletin on Sunday, quoted Shehu as saying only ten boys are with the bandits.
The BBC Hausa bulletin read, “The Government of Nigeria has said its security forces have surrounded the location where gunmen have kept schoolchildren abducted from a secondary school in Katsina State.
“Spokesman for the President, Mallam Garba Shehu told the BBC only ten children were remaining in the hands of the gunmen according to their colleagues who escaped from the gunmen.
Meanwhile, the United Nation Children Fund (UNICEF) has condemned the attack, calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all the children.
UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa Marie-Pierre Poirier in a statement issued said “UNICEF is deeply concerned about these acts of violence. Attacks on schools are a violation of children’s rights. This is a grim reminder that abductions of children and widespread grave violations of children’s rights continue to take place in northern Nigeria”.
