A fresh attack by bandits on Saturday night to kidnap another set and scores of Islamic school students in Dandume local government area of Katsina State have been foiled.
According to police report, 80 kidnapped students (Islammiyya students) were rescued by the police alongside four other victims who were also abducted by the bandits who rustled some cows.
The students who were returning from an Islamic occasion in a neighbouring village, Unguwar Al-Kasim, and were on their way home, Mahuta village, when they were abducted, were rescued after the police received distress calls.
Spokesman for the Katsina Police Command, SP Gambo Isah confirmed the incident and also revealed that they have commenced investigation into the incident.
Isah said;
A distress call was received by DPO Dandume, that some Islamiyya Students of Hizburrahim Islamiyya, Mahuta village, Dandume LGA of Katsina state, numbering about Eighty (80), while on their way back from Maulud occasion celebrated at Unguwan Alkasim village, Dandume to Mahuta village, were accosted by bandits who had already kidnapped four(4) persons and rustled twelve (12) cows from Danbaure village, Funtua LGA, trying to escape into the forest.
He added;
On receipt of the report, the DPO led Operations Puff Adder, Sharan Daji and Vigilante group to the area and engaged the bandits into a fierce gun duel. Subsequently, the teams succeeded in dislodging the bandits and rescued all the eighty-four (84) kidnapped victims and recovered all the twelve rustled cows
Search parties are still combing the area with a view of arresting the injured bandits and/or recovery of their dead bodies.
In recent years, kidnappers have targeted schools mostly in the northern part of the country, raising fears about the safety of learning institutions in Nigeria.
Just last week, over three hundred students of the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara, Katsina State were freed by their abductors, ending fears that the schoolchildren may not reunite with their parents.
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President Muhammadu Buhari, after the boys, who have now been reunited with the parents, were freed by their captors, expressed;
I congratulate the governor [Aminu Masari] that the schoolboys have been successfully released.
I congratulated the governor and the army for organising the operation and sacrament of the abductors in getting the release of the children.
