Gunmen Abduct Six Schoolgirls, Two Teachers from Kaduna School

John Shiklam in Kaduna

Six schoolgirls and two of their teachers have been abducted by gunmen at the Engraver’s College in Kakau Daji, Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

The bandits were said to have invaded the school around midnight by breaking the school fence.

Kakau Daji is a village located along the dreaded Kaduna-Abuja road, where kidnapping and banditry are rampant.

Spokesman of the Kaduna State Police Command, Yakubu Sabo, who confirmed the incident, said the gunmen invaded the school through the fence.
Sabo said in a statement that a combined team of riot police and anti-kidnapping squads had commenced a manhunt for the kidnappers with a view to rescuing the victims and apprehending the culprits.

He said: “The command received an information through DPO (Divisional Police Officer) Toll Gate, in the early hours of today (Thursday) 03/10/2019 at about 0310hrs that some armed men gained entry into the Engravers College, a boarding secondary school in a remote area near Kakau Daji village in Chikun L.G.A and took away two staff of the college and six female students to unknown destination.”

The statement said on receipt of the information, the command immediately mobilised combined teams of anti-kidnapping, SARS, and conventional police to the area for possible rescue of the victims and arresting the perpetrators of the unfortunate incident.

Sabo said the IG’s Intelligent Respond team (IRT) had been contacted for technical support.

He called on all the private school proprietors within the state to liaise with their nearest police formation and promptly report incidents or suspicious persons around schools to forestall future occurrence of ugly incident.

The statement assured the public that the Kaduna State Police Commissioner, Mr. Ali Aji Janga, was doing everything possible to secure the release of all the victims unhurt.

It called on members of the public not to relent in giving the Police prompt and useful information at all times.

Meanwhile the Kaduna State Government has condemned the invasion of the school, saying Governor Nasir el-Rufai has dispatched a government delegation to sympathise with the school community and assure them that security agencies are working to rescue the abducted persons.

In a statement in Kaduna, the state Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Mr. Samuel Aruwan, said: “The Kaduna State Government condemns this as a despicable action, a most unfortunate intrusion of crime into the life of young students and the staff teaching them.”

The abduction in Kaduna came almost six years after a similar incident in Chibok, Borno State, in which Boko Haram insurgents kidnapped 276 female students from the Government Secondary School in the town.

The whereabouts of over 100 of them remain unknown as some were freed after the federal government entered into negotiations with the terror group while others escaped from the insurgents.