Gunmen Kidnap 287 Students, Principal In Kaduna School

Akeem Oduyoye

Gunmen on Thursday, 7 March, 2024 invaded the LEA Primary and Junior Secondary School, Kuriga in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State and took away no fewer than 312 students and a principal, Abubakar Isah .

 Officials of the school and community leaders told Governor Uba Sani, alongside key government officials, who visited the school on Thursday, said that 187 students were abducted from the secondary school section and 125 from the primary school section.

One of the teachers, Sani Abdullahi who escaped the abduction along others, said 25 of the pupils from the primary section had returned. This, he said, leaves 287 students and the principal in custody of the bandits.

Abdullahi told the governor that at exactly 7:47am, he entered the acting principal’s office to sign his attendance when all of a sudden, the bandits surrounded the school premises.

“We became confused; we didn’t know where to go. Then, the bandits asked us to enter the bush, so we obeyed them because there were many of them, and the pupils, who are 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 vigilantes and personnel of the Kaduna State Vigilance Service (KADVS) followed the bandits, but the vigilantes did not succeed. In fact, the bandits killed one of the vigilantes; we just buried him a short while ago,” he said.