About 30 students have been abducted overnight by gunmen from a forestry college near a military academy in Kaduna, Northwest Nigeria.
This is the fourth mass school abduction since December.
Kaduna State’s Security Commissioner, Samuel Aruwan has confirmed that the students were abducted from the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Mando, in Kaduna. He, however, did not say how many students had been taken.
“The police and the military are on top of the situation. We are trying to liaise with the school management to know the exact number of students that were abducted and then see the possibility of rescuing them unhurt and arresting the perpetrators,” Kaduna police spokesman, Mohammed Jalige said.
Some residents described the aftermath of the attack thus: “saw some of the students, teachers and security personnel all over the school premises and told us that gunmen raided the school and abducted some of the students.”
On Friday morning, relatives of the students were gathered at the gates of the college, which was surrounded by around 20 army trucks.
Criminal gangs, often locally referred to as “bandits” have increasingly been involved in kidnappings, across central and northern Nigeria.
In response to the recent mass kidnapping of 279 schoolgirls in Zamfara state, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered security agents “to shoot any person or persons seen carrying AK-47s in any forest in the country.”
Buhari has now directed a ban on all mining activities in Zamfara State. This also includes the imposition of a no-fly zone over the state.