#BringBackOurBoys: Katsina Governor Confirms Abduction Of 300 Pupils

Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari has confirmed the abduction of more than 300 schoolboys in the state.

Jameela News reports that the #BringBackOurBoys began trending on Sunday, December 13, after several online reports confirmed that about 600 pupils in an all-boys Government Science boarding School were abducted late on Friday.

This online news platform learned that some armed men stormed the Secondary School in Kankara district of Katsina state, home to the President, Muhammadu Buhari, on December 11 and had a face-off with the security officials in place before they kidnapped hundreds of students.

Many of the students were said to have fled to a nearby forest upon seeing the armed men.

News agencies confirmed that some of the boys began coming out of their hideouts as soon as the attackers disappeared.

At the time of filing this report, no security official was confirmed dead or injured.

Meanwhile, the Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari confirmed that 333 boys had been missing since the attack on Friday.

“So far we are yet to account for 333 pupils,” the Governor said after engaging with Security officials.

“Efforts are being made to ascertain the actual number of children that have been kidnapped,” he continued.

Some parents of the abducted students expressed their grievances to newsmen in a report from Al-Jazeera news.

Murja Mohammed told Reuters that “If it’s not the government that will help us, we have no power to rescue our children”.

Another parent from Zaria, Kaduna state, Abubakar Lawal said that he has been in the school from yesterday, he “was here, praying that the Almighty Allah should rescue our people.”

One of his children Buhari, a 17-year-old who was named after President Muhammadu Buhari was among the abducted pupils.

Lawal also revealed that his 16-year-old son, Anas had also been declared missing.

Banditry or Boko Haram Attack?

Jameela News reports that since the emanation of an acclaimed Islamic terrorist group, Bokoharam in 2009, over 300 pupils had been abducted from Government Science Schools in the North-east region of Nigeria.

In 2014 about 270 schoolgirls were abducted from an all-girls Government Science Secondary School in a town called Chibok located in Borno, a Northeastern state in the country.

In 2018, about four years later 100 schoolgirls were also abducted in Dapchi, Yobe state, another North-eastern state.

Meanwhile, Katsina state, located in the North-western region of the country is known to be home for banditry attacks.

Since the abduction of the schoolboys on Friday, no faction of the Boko Haram terrorist group has taken credit for the attack.

What the Nigerian Military is saying?

Defence Minister Major-General Bashir Salihi-Magash assured the Katsina state Governor that the Military would rescue the students without any collateral damage.

His words: “We will go the whole hog.

“We have the intelligence, the information where they are and their movement and their method of operation.”