By Abimbola Ogunnaike
Gunmen in the early hours of Saturday, 9 March, 2024 invaded a school named Tsangaya at Gidan Bakuso area of Gada Local Government Area in Sokoto State and abducted at least 15 students of the school.
The proprietor of the school, Liman Abubakar, confirmed the development, adding that “So far, 15 students were unaccounted for, but we are still counting. They invaded the town around 1am, shot one person and abducted a woman in the process.
“As they were leaving the town, they sighted our students rushing into their rooms and they kidnapped many of them.
“We have so far counted 15 who are missing and we are still searching for more.”
According to Abubakar, this was not the first time the village was attacked by bandits but had never kidnapped any of their students until now.
Also speaking on the development, Mansur Ahmadu, a resident of the affected community, said 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, a member, representing Gada-East constituency at the state House of Assembly, Kabiru Dauda, said he received a call from the village around 2am that they were invaded by bandits.
“I reached out to the local government authorities and security agencies and I am sure they are doing something about it,” he said.
Meanwhile, the spokesman for the Sokoto State Police Command, ASP Ahmad Rufa’i, confirmed the incident, adding that the command has deployed team to ascertain the real situation.
“Most of your colleagues has been calling me on this but honestly I just spoke with the Divisional Police Officer of the affected community.
“We have mobilised our men to ascertain what actually happened, I can assure you that we are on top of the situation. I will brief you on it” Rufai added.
