Kaduna state governor Uba Sani has clarified that 137 schoolchildren were abducted from Kuriga in the Chikun Local Government Area of the state, contrary to the 287 figure that was widely reported.
The governor made this clarification on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme, stating that all the abducted school children have been rescued by the military in collaboration with local authorities from neighbouring Zamfara State. The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) also confirmed that 137 pupils were rescued.
As reported widely, the LEA School’s authorities had said about 287 pupils were kidnapped when gunmen stormed the premises on March 7. However, the DHQ’s statement on the rescue operation of the pupils was silent about the whereabouts of the remaining 150 students.
Reacting to the controversy, Governor Sani said “I don’t want to join issues with anyone in terms of numbers. What is more important to me is the safe return of the children. Today, I am happy that they are back safely, and in high spirits, but those numbers were just figments of some people’s imagination.
“Today, I met with the families of the children and they confirmed to me that the numbers given by the military are the correct numbers,” he added, describing the “287” as works of propagandists.
Meanwhile, the governor mourned a teacher who was kidnapped alongside the pupils but died while in captivity “due to complications.”
“It’s only one person who has not returned and that is the teacher. That is the fact of the matter but all of the 137 children are safely back. We had the unfortunate incident that the teacher couldn’t make it because he had some complications; he was sick — that was the report we got from the military and the security agencies but the rest of the children, all of them are back with us.” He said
The abduction of the Kuriga pupils was not the first in the series of mass kidnappings of schoolchildren in the country. From Chibok to Dapchi, Kankara, Kagara, and many others in Kaduna, Katsina, and Niger states, terrorists have in the last years seized thousands of schoolchildren in mass kidnappings that attracted global outrage.
