- Anger in Jangebe as residents pelt stones on journalists, govt officials over abduction
The Zamfara State Commissioner of Police, Abutu Yaro, on Friday said only “about” 317 students were abducted from Government Girls Science Secondary School Jangebe, Talata-Mafara Local Government Area of the State in the early hours of the morning.
But a teacher at the school said that of the about 600 students of the school, only about 50 students were accounted for after the terrorists had abducted the schoolgirls.
Reacting to the mass scale abduction, Mr Yaro said a joint search and rescue operation is already underway with a view to rescuing the abducted 317 schoolgirls.
Commissioner of Police 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.
This is just as journalists and top Zamfara State officials narrowly escaped being lynched at Jangebe.
The journalists were attacked when they arrived the community for reports on the abduction.
Trouble started when the visibly disturbed and angry residents sighted the vehicles conveying the journalists.
They began to throw stones and other dangerous objects at the vehicles which some youth said should be set ablaze.
The drivers of the vehicles conveying the journalists had to quickly zoom off with some of their windscreens smashed.
The convoy of the state commissioner for security home affairs was reportedly pelted with stones when he visited the area.
The residents, mostly youths, were seen carrying catapults, sticks, machetes’ and other dangerous weapons.
Babangida Khalifa, cameraman of an online news medium in the State, was badly injured.
Reacting to the development, Commissioner of Police Yaro appealed for calm, saying expression of anger is unhelpful.