Bandits Abduct 15 Islamic Schoolchildren, Woman In Sokoto

About 15 Tsangaya pupils and one mother have been kidnapped by bandits in Gidan Bukaso, Gada Local Government Area (LGA), Sokoto State.

The state’s police authorities verified that the criminals broke into the community at around 10:00 a.m.

They saw the students running into their rooms as they were leaving the town, and they took several of them hostage.

Malam Liman Abubakar is the owner of the Sangaya Islamic School, according to Ahmed Rufai, the spokesman for the Sokoto State Police Command. He clarified that the woman who was kidnapped had also been removed from the school.

While no life was lost in the attack, police authorities have mobilized to the village for a rescue operation to ensure the children are back unhurt.

The attack came hours before the Sokoto State Government held a ceremony for the passing out of its Community Guards Corps, a security outfit aimed at tackling banditry and other crimes in the North-West State.

Saturday’s abduction is the latest in the renewed kidnapping of students in Nigeria. Earlier in the week, bandits took away close to 200 students in Kaduna State.

That incident has drawn condemnation from wide and near including UNICEF, Amnesty International, and a host of other agencies and personalities. President Bola Tinubu has also mandated the immediate rescue of the students.

The recent spate of kidnapping in the country led First Lady Remi Tinubu to call for the death penalty for abductors whom she described as “cowards”.