17th February, 2021
By Aminu Garko
Niger State Governor, Abubakar Sani-Bello has confirmed the abduction 27 school students, three staff and 12 family members at the Government Science College Karaga of Rafi local government areas of the state.
He confirmed this during a press conference shortly after an emergency meeting with heads of security agencies in Minna on Wednesday.
Gunmen had stormed the school on Wednesday at 2am killing one student, kidnapped 27 students, three staff and 12 members of the families at Government Science College in kagara.
Also, 40 passengers from Kontagora to Minna where abducted by suspected gunman on February 14.
Bello directed that all boarding schools in Shiroro, Rafi and Muyan be closed down with immediate effect until the situation improves.
“I call on all Nigerlites to condemn all forms of criminality in the state,” he said.
He called the Federal Government to deploy all resources to secure the state while the state government was doing everything possible to ensure safe return of the students and staff.
The governor, however, disclosed that out of the 40 passengers abducted, 8 have regained freedom while the remaining were still in the hands of their abductors who were demanding for ransom.
He said that the state government would not pay ransom to the suspected bandits in order to secure the release of their victims, but was ready to support any bandit who was ready to surround arms.
“When you negotiate and pay ransom to criminals, they will use the money to purpose more weapons,” he said.
NAN reports that Government Science College Kagara has a total of 650 students of which 27 were abducted and one student Benjamin Doma killed.