Gunmen have kidnapped about three hundred students from Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe in the Talata Mafara Local Government area of Zamfara State, a week after a similar abduction of 45 people from a school in Niger State.
The armed attackers invaded the school around 1 am on Friday, February 26, 2021, according to the state’s Commissioner for Information, Suleiman Tunau Anka.
The commissioner did not reveal how many were abducted, but eyewitnesses told BBC Hausa that a headcount of those left at the school showed around 300 may have been taken.
The commissioner said security forces have already been mobilised to rescue the students.
In reaction to the development, the Zamfara Police Commissioner, CP Abutu Yaro said a joint search and rescue operation is already underway with a view to rescuing the kidnapped students.
CP Yaro said the Force Commander Operations Hadarin Daji, Major General Aminu Bande, Brigade Commander 1 Brigade, Nigeria Army Gusau, and other state government officials led a heavily armed Re-enforcement team to Jangebe to complement the ongoing rescue operation in the locations where the students were believed to have been whisked to.
The Commissioner while interfacing with the Principal of the school and the parents appealed to everyone to be calm as joint efforts of the police and other security agencies will surely lead to a successful rescue of the students.
Zamfara is one of the worst-affected by the activities of armed groups in the northern region.
The state governor, Bello Matawalle, has been offering amnesty to ‘repentant’ bandits to surrender their arms, a programme that has achieved mixed results.
