An 18-year-old student of Government Science School, Kankara, in Katsina State, Osama Aminu Maale, has disclosed how he escaped from bandits who kidnapped students from the school last Friday.
Maale in his revelation noted that 520 students were kidnapped by the bandits on Friday night.
“There were a total of 520 of us that were taken by the gunmen from the school,” he told AFP on the phone.
“After they took us away we stopped inside the bus where they made the older students take a headcount. We counted 520.”
“One of the gunmen hit me repeatedly when I failed to keep up with the rest of the group due to my failing health before he let me trail behind, giving me the chance to escape.”
The State Governor, Aminu Masari, during his visit to the school on Saturday noted that the military are working to locate and free the hostages.
“Soldiers are currently in the bushes fighting the bandits. We will do all we can to ensure all the abducted children are reclaimed,” he said.
He added that it is not clear the number of students that were abducted and how many had escaped.
“The school has a population of 839 and so far, we are yet to account for 333 students,” Masari told a federal government delegation in his office on Sunday.
“We are still counting because more are still coming out of the forest,” said the governor.
“Up till this moment, no one can give a precise figure of the children abducted,” he stated, adding that students who escaped confirmed some of their peers were taken.
The Presidency, however, claimed that only 10 boys were abducted from the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State.
This is in total contradiction with what Governor Aminu Masari revealed earlier. The Katsina state governor had said 333 boys were still missing.
