Follow Us on Google
From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
The General Officer Commanding 1 Division, Nigerian Army/Force Commander, Operation Whirl Punch, Major General Mayirenso Saraso, yesterday, briefed the Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, on the successful rescue of 137 school children who were abducted on March 7, from primary and secondary schools in Kuriga town, Chikun Local Government Area of the state.
However, while representing to the governor, the freed students, who arrived Kaduna Government House, at about 2.08pm, yesterday, Major General Saraso informed that six out of the 137 have been hospitalised and were being attended to at the army medical facility.
He further disclosed that one staff member of the school, who was among the 138 people that were abducted, Mr Abubakar, died in captivity.
The 131 school children were later taken to women and children’s shelter within Kaduna city for psycho social therapy, pending onward handing over to their respective parents.
The GOC said: “We successfully freed 137, but you will discover that six of them are not presently with us here, they are being attended to medically in our facility at Darlet Barracks, one male with five female students who have been hospitalised. His Excellency visited them last night and he saw all the students, including those lying on hospital beds. So those six, when eventually discharged when they get better, will join their 131 colleagues who are here physically to complete the figure of 137.
“Recall that on Thursday, March 7, 2024, some Violent Extremists and Insurgents (VE/I), infamously called armed bandits, invaded the LEA Primary School and the Government Secondary School, both co-located at Kuriga, in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, where they criminally abducted several pupils and students, including a staff member of one of the two schools.
“Through the sustained and coordinated application of both kinetic and non-kinetic efforts by the security agencies, under the strategic guidance of the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu, GCFR, through the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), the abducted Kuriga school children have, in the early hours of yesterday, Sunday, March 24, 2024, been safely rescued after spending about 16 days in captivity.
“The students were initially received and administered first aid at the Nigerian Army Troops Forward Operating Base, Dandadau, in Zamfara State, before being served refreshment and subsequently conveyed from there, under escort, to Kaduna.
“In all, there were 137 children and one staff member, making 138 people altogether, that were abducted from the co-located schools on the ill-fated day. But, unfortunately, the staff member, Mr Abubakar, is not here with us, today, because he died while in captivity.
“Consequently, at present, a total of 137 students of the Government Secondary and LEA Primary Schools Kuriga, in Chikun LGA of Kaduna State, who were successfully rescued from captivity around Dansadau Forest in Zamfara State, and safely brought back to Kaduna. The breakdown of the figure of the rescued children shows that there are 76 females and 61 males, making the total of 137 (less the teacher who died while in captivity)”.
Governor Sani appreciated the efforts of President Tinubu and all heads of security agencies in the country for the successful rescue of the embattled school children. The governor said: “I want to appreciate our children who are here with us and are in high spirit. I want to make it very clear to all of us that from the very day that our children were unfortunately abducted from their school in Kuriga community, the President of the Republic of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, has been with us.
He ensured that the security returned our children home safely.
“I want to thank the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, for his able leadership, and all the service chiefs and security agencies for their respective contributions and organised efforts. That’s why we are here today and happy to celebrate the release of our children. I want to appreciate many Nigerians who prayed day and night for the release of the children and, today, God has answered our prayers.
“I want to make one clarification here; when this incident happened, some of us were very encouraging with the efforts of the security agencies. We are working with them closely, sharing a lot of intelligence report, and that is why we are here today.
“I also want to caution insecurity and conflict merchants in Nigeria to be cautious with their utterances because, before the release of our children, a lot of people came with a lot of permutations on how these children were released and what happened.
“The important thing for us in Kaduna is that the children are here with us. This is more important. As a government, it is to protect life and property of our citizens. And, under my government, the Kaduna State will continue to prioritise our security because security is number one agenda of our government. We should not prioritise the issue of insecurity in Nigeria. It is not good to undermine the efforts of security agencies.
“We are all happy because we had 16 days of sleepless nights, but, today, we are happy the children are back and I want to emphasise that we will continue to make security efforts, so that all our local government areas and communities are safe”.
Meanwhile, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has called for proactive measures against future occurrence of such kidnapping.
In a statement, the National Publicity Secretary of the forum, Prof. Tukur Muhammad-Baba, said: “It is with warm hearts and gratitude that the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) received news about the release of the students abducted from schools at Kuriga, Kaduna State.
“Details of the process that led to the release of the students are unavailable, understandably for security reasons. Without prejudice, however, for ACF the development hopefully signals a new dawn in anti-terrorism measures being applied by government.”
