According to the Governor of the state, the release of the captives has been achieved through the action of security forces – File: Photo courtesy of Al Jazeera
Abuja: The Nigerian government has said that more than 130 children who were kidnapped at gunpoint at the beginning of last month have been safely recovered before the ransom deadline. According to Al Jazeera’s report, government spokesman Abdul Aziz Abdul Aziz stated that several measures were taken to recover the children abducted in the village of Korega in the state of Kaduna on March 7.
He said that all the children have been released and are in good condition, with a total number of 137 children reported, while according to media reports, this number is much lower than the list of 286 students and workers. The spokesman claimed that the media reports are not accurate but did not provide further details.
According to Kimi Kinuedo, a member of the West Africa – Nigeria organization Partners, the reason for discrepancies in numbers is due to lack of accountability and negligence in all sectors. He said that this means that the public is not being provided with accurate information on how many children were actually abducted.
Prior to this, Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna had mentioned in a statement that after a security operation under the National Security Adviser, the captives were rescued. The governor said that we are grateful to all the citizens who worked for the safe return of the kidnapped school children and today is a day of happiness. The Nigerian army deserves special praise for showing courage, determination, and resolve to eradicate criminal elements and ensure the safety of all citizens.
The kidnappers had demanded a ransom of one billion naira last week for the release of the school children and staff and had threatened that if the ransom was not paid within 20 days, the captives would be killed.
On the other hand, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu had stated that the ransom will not be paid as such actions were already banned after the end of the attackers in 2022.
It should be noted that this is the largest incident of student abduction in Nigeria after November 2021, while incidents of school children being abducted by armed individuals are frequent in Nigeria.
On March 9th, 15 children were abducted from a school in the village of Gidan Bacokoso in the state of Sokoto, while on March 18th, 87 children, including women, were kidnapped in the Jajura region of Kaduna.