The Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun has arrived Kaduna State for a meeting with Governor Uba Sani regarding the recent abduction of 287 primary and secondary school students in Kuriga community, Chikun Local Government Area.
Upon arrival, Egbetokun was greeted by the Governor’s Chief of Staff, Sani Kila, and the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Yusuf Liman.
At the meeting, the IGP affirmed that the Police High Command would employ various strategies, including both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches, to secure the release of the victims.
He further announced plans to deploy additional mobile policemen and special forces to affected communities and other vulnerable areas in Kaduna to combat banditry, kidnappings, and terrorism.
Egbetokun’s visit follows the kidnapping of the students from their schools last Thursday.
A teacher in one of the schools attacked by bandits, Sani Abdullahi, had disclosed how he managed to escape from the bush during the incident, adding that out of the 287 pupils, 100 were abducted from the primary school while 187 students were abducted from the secondary school. Both schools are on the same premises.
“I resumed to the school today at exactly 7.47 a.m. I entered the acting principal’s office and signed. All of a sudden the Acting Principal asked me to look behind me and when I turned, we discovered that bandits had surrounded the school premises. We became confused and didn’t know where to go.
“Then, the bandits asked us to enter the bush, so we obeyed them because there were many, and the pupils who were about 700 were following us. So when we entered the bush, I was lucky to escape alongside many other people.
“So, I returned to the village and reported what happened to the community. So, immediately our vigilante and personnel of KADVS followed the bandits, but the vigilante did not succeed. The bandits killed one of the vigilantes, we just buried him.
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“It was when we came back from that pursuit that we briefed the village head, and we started making efforts to know the actual number of pupils and teachers taken away by the bandits.
“At GSS Kuriga, 187 students are presently missing. In the primary school, 125 pupils were initially missing, but, 25 of them escaped and retired home.”
After the incident, Governor Sani paid a visit to the community where the incident happened, and assured the people of the safe and timely return of the kidnapped children, stating that security agencies were working round the clock to ensure their release.
