Aggrieved parents on Monday protested in Kaduna State demanding a state of emergency and the release of over 140 students abducted from Bethel Baptist High School by bandits.
It was gathered that heavily armed marauders invaded the school located in Maraban Rido, Chikun local government area of the state in the early hours of Monday and whisked away the students.
The attackers were said to have scaled a fence to break into the taking away most of the 165 pupils boarding there overnight.
“The kidnappers took away 140 students, only 25 students escaped. We still have no idea where the students were taken,” Emmanuel Paul, a teacher at the school told AFP.
Kaduna State Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Joseph Hayab, who confirmed the incident, said his son who is also a student in the school, was among some of those who narrowly escaped the bandits.
“We cannot give the exact figure of those abducted for now, until those who ran into the hills for safety are back and a census of the students is taken, but we know they took a lot of students.
“I am just speechless, I don’t know what to say! My son was among the students who narrowly escaped.
“I am part of this unfortunate incident because it is my church. This is a very, very sad situation for us.
“I was informed that bandits invaded the school around 2am.
“They have just started the NECO exam and see what we are going through”, Hayab said.
Speaking to journalists, one of the parents, Mrs. Caroline Emmanuel said: ‘I have an only child and my only surviving child and the Government is not doing anything about it.
“In fact, the students that they were claiming to have rescued came back on their own. The security did not rescue anybody because they have already started saying that soldiers rescued them and even soldiers were killed while rescuing the children. So, no soldier rescued any child.
“One thing should be noted, bandits have been killing us, they just entered Nissi community last two weeks, they came to my house… They kidnapped people at Nissi, the bandits have been kidnapping people and killing them anyhow. We can’t even go to the farm, we can’t do anything again.
‘Now they are coming to school again. Enough is enough. Kaduna State should declare a state of emergency if El-Rufai cannot do anything. He has failed. He is not doing anything. They just come blowing siren, they should go to the bush if they are serious.
“They have refused to enter the bush and a soldier is firing bullet here to disperse harmless parents, who are protesting on the road, carrying just leaves. Why should they fire bullets in the midst of aggrieved parents when they are supposed to be in the forest rescuing our children. Why, why?
“Since morning (yesterday), around 4 am that we were here, no soldier or police had entered the bush in search of the kidnapped students. But he is here firing bullets at innocent parents that are just holding leaves. For what na, for what?
“What kind of mistrust and betrayal is this? A state of emergency should be declared in Kaduna State.
Kaduna state police spokesman Mr. Mohammed Jalige confirmed the early morning attack, but he could not give details on the number of pupils taken.
“Tactical police teams went after the kidnappers,” he said. “We are still on the rescue mission.”
Monday’s attack was the fourth mass school kidnap in Kaduna state since December.
The abduction came just hours after gunmen also snatched eight medical employees from a Kaduna health center, according to police.
The criminal gangs operate from camps in the Rugu forest, which cuts across Zamfara, Katsina, and Kaduna state in Nigeria, as well as Niger.
Most of the gangs are motivated by material gain, although some have sworn allegiance to the jihadist organisations in northeast Nigeria, hundreds of miles away.
