Bandits continue to wage war against education in Northern Nigeria as they kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls from Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe, Talata Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
The abduction occurred between midnight around 1.00 am.
Sadi Kawaye, a parent who resides at Kawaye village in Anka Local Government Area of the State lamented that his daughters, Mansura and Sakina, were among those abducted.
“I’m on my to Jangebe now over this terrible situation. I was told they invaded the school around 1am,” he said over the phone.
When contacted, SP Muhammad Shehu, Police Public Relations Officer in Zamfara State, said he could not react.
“Give me some time, I can’t say anything now,” he said.
News of the latest abduction comes less than two weeks after armed men broke into Government Science College, Kagara, Niger State.
The attackers had raided staff quarters and hostels, where they picked their victims and took them into the forest.
Although President Muhammadu Buhari ordered security agencies to ensure their immediate release, the victims are still in captivity.
On Thursday, Governor Sani Bello of Niger alleged that the federal government had abandoned the state on the issue of the release of Kagara victims.
In an audio that went viral on social media, a man who spoke on behalf of the captors of Kagara victims, threatened that they might starve to death.
This is the first time in Nigeria that gunmen will stage large-scale abduction of students from different schools in less than two weeks.
The first major attack on a school by an armed gang happened in Borno State, where over 300 students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, were abducted on April 14, 2014.
Four years after, gunmen hit Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, and abducted 119 students.
In December 2020, over 300 male students were abducted at Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State.
First published in Daily Trust, https://dailytrust.com/breaking-gunmen-storm-zamfara-school-abduct-female-students