At least 15 Tsangaya students have reportedly been abducted by bandits in the Gidan Bakuso area of Gada Local Government Area in Sokoto State.
The incident which happened at the school premises took place around 1am on Saturday, as reported by our correspondent.
The school proprietor, Liman Abubakar, confirmed the incident, stating that currently, 15 students are unaccounted for, with the counting still ongoing.
He reported that the kidnapper invaded the town at 1am, shooting one person and abducting a woman. While leaving, they noticed students rushing into their rooms and proceeded to kidnap many of them.
Abubakar noted that the village had been attacked by bandits before, but they had never kidnapped any students until now.
Mansur Ahmadu, a resident of the affected community, also stated that the bandits invaded the community in the middle of the night.
“It was a serious situation when the incident happened, they killed a woman in the process before they abduct those students,” he said.
Also confirming the incident, Kabiru Dauda, a member representing Gada-East constituency at the state House of Assembly, recounted receiving a call from the village around 2am reporting the invasion by bandits.
The spokesman for the Sokoto State Police Command, ASP Ahmad Rufa’i, when contacted, confirmed that the command has dispatched a team to investigate the real situation.
As of the time of filing this report, attempts to contact the state governor’s Special Adviser on Security Matters, Col Ahmed Usman, were unsuccessful as his line was not reachable.
However, a top government official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed the attack and assured everyone that the government will do everything possible to ensure the safe return of the abducted students.
