EIGHT female students who were abducted in the Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State have escaped from captivity.
Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs Samuel Aruwan disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday, April 18.
Aruwan said the students were now being kept in a military facility where they are receiving medical treatment.
“The eight female students of Government Secondary School, Awon, who were kidnapped by terrorists on Monday, April 3, 2023, in the Awon general area of Kachia LGA – have escaped from the terrorists’ den.
“The students, according to preliminary briefings, escaped from a thick forest around the Kaduna-Niger interstate boundaries, and walked for days before arriving at a location (kept undisclosed for security reasons) where they were harboured. Human intelligence sources subsequently alerted the Kaduna State Government for immediate evacuation,” Aruwan noted.
Terrorists had abducted the students along with other residents of the area on Monday, April 3.
Confirming the incident, Aruwan said the girls were on their way home from school when they were abducted.
“The Government can confirm that eight students of the Government Secondary School, Awon in Kachia LGA were kidnapped on Monday in the general area, along with other citizens. Furthermore, it was verified that the students were not kidnapped within the school premises, but on their way home from school when they came in contact with the bandits, who had abducted other residents,” Aruwan disclosed.
There has been a rising spate of terrorism and abductions in Nigeria, especially in the Northern region.
Students have been targets of these abductions since over 200 girls were abducted from the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, in 2014, a situation that had an adverse effect on education in the country where about 20 million children are out of school.
Nine years after the abduction of the Chibok students, more than 90 girls are still in captivity, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.