BREAKING: Bandits abduct 300 schoolgirls in Zamfara
*Abuja makes full police deployment trailing abductors
*Govt shuts all boarding schools in state
By IBRAHIM KANOMA, Gusau
Barely 24 hours after Sheikh Ahmed Gumi made fruitless effort to secure amnesty for the killer bandits in the North West, over 300 girl students of Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe in Talata Madara Local Government Area of Zamfara State have been kidnapped.
This is against the terms of the ongoing peace initiative of the Zamfara State Government.
President Buhari, at a security meeting of Northern Governors’ Forum in Kaduna Thursday, had vowed that there will be no amnesty for the bandits, whose killing prey has not spared Sokoto, Zamfara and Katsina states, as well as insurgents and other criminals that constitute security threat to Nigerians.
Barely 12 hours after the Presidential pronouncement, the bandits, still in the bushes, struck in Talata Madara, over 85 kilometres from the state capital and less than that from Sokoto city, and took the schoolgirls away at gunpoint.
The Commissioner of Security and Home Affairs, Alhaji Abubakar Dauran, who confirmed the incident on Friday, said security agents had been mobilized to pursue the bandits.
“I can confirm to you now that we have sadly received the report on the abduction of the students of GGSS, Jangebe and right now, am on my way to the school.
“At this moment, l cannot say how many students were taken away by the gunmen until l get there but we have already mobilized security men and members of the vigilantatè who are now in pursuit of the abductors,” he said.
A source in the school said the bandits went to the school at about 2 am shooting in the air before kidnapping some of the students.
“Gunmen in their hundreds invaded the town around 2am of Friday, shot sporadically in the air to scare the residents before coming into the school.
“After taking away most of the students, we rounded up those that escaped or hid from the bandits and conducted a census where we counted 54 students and we are still searching to see if we can get more,” he said.
Another source, Haliru Jangebe said the local vigilantè, who tried to repel the invaders were over powered.
“The bandits were too many and they all seemed to be carrying heavy arms as we heard gunshots from all parts of the town and when the shots stopped, we heard that the students had been taken away,” he said.
Our Zamfara State Correspondent reported that the gunmen arrived at the school by 1.00 midnight on many motorcycles carrying dangerous weapons.
A reliable source told The DEFENDER in Gusau that the girls abducted midight were in their hundreds.
Zamfara State Police Command has confirmed the abduction saying that it is already on top of the matter having mobilized and made necessary deployment on the trail of the bandits.
In the meantime, the Zamfara State Government has shutdown all boarding schools as a result of the unfortunate development.
Governor Mohamed Bello Matawalle disclosed this, while briefing newsmen on the abduction of several students of GGSS Jangebe in Talata Mafara local government of Zamfara State.
He appealed to the parents of the abducted girls to be patient as government was doing everything possible to rescue the girls safely and hand them to their parents.
Governor Matawalle said that his government would not relent until all the girls are rescued, assuring them of total commitment of government in achieving it.
He said security personnel, both from the state and Abuja, were trailing the bandits with a view to tracking them, even as he symphatized with the girls’ parents and appealed to them to be patient as the girls would be rescued soon.
He called on the people of Zamfara to continue to pray so that “we have lasting peace in the state and country in general as already two police hellicopters and military plane were deployed to compliment the search mission.
