Published 16:59 IST, March 2nd 2021
All 279 kidnapped Nigerian students released, Governor says 'our daughters are safe'
Zamfara state governor Bello Matawalle said that the hundreds of school girls abducted last week from a boarding school have now been released.
Zamfara state governor Bello Matawalle on Tuesday, March 2, said that the hundreds of school girls abducted last week from a boarding school in the northwestern Zamfara state have been released. Matawalle said that 279 girls have been freed while last week the government announced that 317 had been kidnapped. The incident took place when gunmen abducted the girls from the Government Girls Junior Secondary School in Jangebe town. This comes as just another incident in the series of mass kidnappings of students in Nigeria.
279 girls released
“Alhamdulillah! It gladdens my heart to announce the release of the abducted students of GGSS Jangebe from captivity. This follows the scaling of several hurdles laid against our efforts. I enjoin all well-meaning Nigerians to rejoice with us as our daughters are now safe”, wrote Matawalle on his official Twitter handle. The governor further said that the girls will be taken for medical examinations before being reunited with their families.
Speaking to AP, one of the abducted girls said, “We were sleeping at night when suddenly we started hearing gunshots. They were shooting endlessly. We got out of our beds and people said we should run, that they are thieves,” She said. “Everybody fled and there were just two of us left in the room”. The girl said that the attackers held guns to the girls’ heads.
Nigeria has seen several such attacks and kidnappings in recent years. Recently, the gunmen attacked a school in Nigeria's north-central Niger State, killing at least one student and abducting over 40 in Nigeria’s north-central Niger State. According to the reports by AP, one student has been killed and there are reports of 40 people including students and teachers being abducted. The school’s head prefect, Awal Abdulrahman, said that the gunmen chased the students across the school and shot one of them in the head as he tried to escape.
Local media reported that the gunmen are thought to be bandits. “They attacked the first two houses (hostels) by the wall … They entered the house and chased students who tried to escape … They followed us shooting and in the process shot one of us in the head”, said Awal. A teacher informed that the gunmen entered the school premises at about 1:30am dressed in military camouflage. They forced him to lead them to the students’ sleeping quarters.
Updated 16:56 IST, March 2nd 2021