Forest
Governor Masari: Kidnapped Katsina schoolboys moved to Zamfara
Katsina State governor, Aminu Bello Masari, says the schoolboys kidnapped last week have been moved by their captors to a forest in neighbouring Zamfara State. Gunmen invaded the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, on Friday, December 11, 2020, with over 300 students unaccounted a week later. In an interview with BBC Hausa on Wednesday, December 16, 2020, Masari said most of the abducted students are believed to be in the forest in Zamfara. “Right now the security forces have surrounded all these places where the children are thought to be,” he said. Masari had said earlier this week that the government has already commenced negotiations with the kidnappers. He reiterated on Wednesday that this was to ensure the students are returned unhurt. He also disclosed that 400 students ar...
Families of kidnapped Katsina schoolboys fear time running out
Families of more than 300 kidnapped Nigerian schoolboys worried they may be brainwashed or held for years as security forces combed a vast forest on Wednesday for armed captors possibly from the jihadist Boko Haram movement. According to an unverified audio clip, the Islamist group – whose name means “Western education is forbidden” – was responsible for last week’s raid on an all-boys school in the town of Kankara in northwestern Katsina state. Parents fear time may be running out: Boko Haram has a history of turning captives into jihadist fighters. “They will radicalise our children if the government does not act fast to help us rescue them,” said trader Shuaibu Kankara, crying as he spoke from home. His 13-year-old son Annas was among those abducted from the Government Science school on...
President Buhari condemns bandits’ attack on Katsina school, orders reinforcement of security
President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the attack carried out by bandits’ at the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, charging the security agencies to go after the attackers to ensure that no student gets missing or harmed. The president made the remarks in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in Abuja on Saturday. He urged the school authorities to carry out an audit of the population of the students following shootings in and around the school that sent hundreds of them fleeing and scrambling over perimeter walls. He also advised parents who rushed to evacuate their children and wards from the school to notify the school and police authorities in order to have a full account of the school population. “I strongly...
Police arrest kidnapper of ex-Ekiti commissioner
Ekiti Police Command said it has arrested one person in connection with the kidnap of a former Commissioner for Agriculture in the state, Mr Folorunsho Olabode. The suspect was among those paraded by Mr Sunday Abutu, the command’s Public Relations Officer, in Ado-Ekiti for their alleged involvement in various criminal activities. Abutu said that the suspect was arrested inside a forest at Ilemeso-Ekiti in Oye Local Government area of the state. “During interrogation, the suspect confessed to being a member of the syndicate that kidnapped Mr Folorunso Olabode, a former Commissioner for Agriculture in the state,” he said. The police spokesman said that the suspect also mentioned other members of his gang, including the two who had earlier been arrested, prosecuted and were now being remanded...
Gunmen kidnap Edo councillor
Unknown gunmen in the early hours of Wednesday abducted Israel Inyanabor, a councillor representing Ewohimi Ward One in Esan South-East Local Government Area of Edo State. Inyanabor’s kidnap happened along Ewatto-Ubiaja-Okhuesan Road near Ena River in Esan South-East LGA of the state. The kidnap of the councillor has reportedly created tension in the community following an earlier abduction of a teacher and his wife, simply identified as Mr and Mrs Aluola, by suspected bandits along the same Ewatto-Ubiaja-Okhuesan Road on Monday. It was learnt that the abductors of the couple are asking for N15 million as ransom from the family before they would be released. A resident of Ewohimi, Festus Ehigiator, disclosed that the scene of the latest kidnap incident was the same spot where the teacher a...
Ondo governors’s chief of staff’s wife kidnapped
Barely 24 after a first-class traditional ruler was murdered in Ondo, the wife of the Chief of Staff to the Ondo state governor, Chief Olugbenga Ale has been abducted by suspected gunmen. Vanguard gathered that Mrs Ale was abducted at Owena in Idanre council area of the state on Thursday night. A source said that the victim was returning from Lagos to Akure when she was abducted by the bandits who laid siege on the highway and took her into the forest. Vanguard was unable to confirm if other occupants in the vehicle in which she was travelling were kidnapped or escaped into the bush. A top government source who confirmed to Vanguard said ” it is true that the woman was abducted at Owena along Ondo Road. “The case has been reported to the security agencies especially the Amotekun and army t...
Police parade 27 ‘bandits,’ others in Katsina
The police in Katsina State, on Thursday, paraded a 30-year-old man, Idi Dila, suspected to be one of the bandits who recently launched an attack on Diskuru and Kadsau villages of the state, where no fewer than 12 people were killed. According to the police, Dila, from Mumunu village, Faskari Local Government Area of the state, was arrested on Sunday. He was paraded by the police alongside 26 other suspects arrested for various crimes ranging from kidnapping to armed robbery. The spokesman for the Katsina Police Command, Gambo Isah, who paraded the suspects at the police headquarters in Katsina, said Dila was arrested at Sheme on his way to Faskari. He was said to be a member of a notorious gang of bandits of Melaya Alhaji Gandu of Munhaye Forest in the Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfa...
NAF jet bombards bandits meeting venue in Kaduna
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has said the Air Component of Operation THUNDER STRIKE has killed scores of bandits in Kwaimbana Forest area of Kaduna State. The bandits were said to have been killed while having a meeting in the area. Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Major General John Enenche, who made this known in a statement said “Several armed bandits have been neutralized and their meeting venue significantly damaged in air strikes executed by the Air Component of Operation THUNDER STRIKE in Kwaimbana Forest area of Kaduna State. The air raid was conducted yesterday, 17 September 2020, after series of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions led to the identification of the hideout along with a building in the centre of the area which was being used by the a...
Military airstrikes neutralise scores of bandits in Zamfara forest
The Defence Headquarters says the Air Component of Operation Hadarin Daji has eliminated scores of bandits in an air attack on their camp in part of Kwiambana Forest in Zamfara State on July 10. The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. John Enenche, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja. Enenche said the attack followed a discovery that a group of structures hidden under the dense forest vegetation served as hideouts for suspected Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) elements and fighters under the notorious armed bandit kingpin, Dogo Gede. According to him, the Air Component, therefore, dispatched a force package of Nigerian Air Force (NAF) fighter jets and helicopter gunships to attack the location. “The attack aircraft took turns in engaging the target ca...
