Students evacuated from Abuja school as bandits hit nearby community

Students of Federal Government College (FCG) Kwali, Abuja, have been evacuated from their hostels following an attack at a nearby community.

Parents trooped to the school on Monday morning to evacuate their children from the unity college located at Sheda village, on the ever busy Abuja-Lokoja highway.

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Our reporter, who visited the college on Monday morning, saw some parents evacuating their children.

A parent, Mrs Babep Peace, told our reporter that she came from Lagos to evacuate her two children after she received a call that the college management directed parents to evacuate their wards.

She said said she received the call at about 4:pm on Sunday, a situation which she said prompted her to board a night bus from Lagos, to Abuja.

“It was at 4pm on Sunday when one of my daughters called me through her guardians’ phone that the management asked parents to rush down to evacuate their children because of threat by suspected bandits to attack the college,” she said.

She said it was quite unfortunate that the exams of her children had been disrupted, but it was better to take them home safely.

Another parent, Mr Obaniyi Oluwatokpe, who spoke with our reporter, said he was in Kabba, Kogi state, on Sunday night when he also received a call from the college management.

He said it was the fear he drove down to the college that he was told that bandits have threatened to attack the schoool.

An SS II student of the college, Rebbeca Samuel, who was seen moving out her bags, told our reporter that some bandits attacked Sheda village on Saturday night, a situation which she caused panic.

“It was at about 12am on Saturday while we were sleeping inside the hostel that we suddenly heard gunshots which made the school management ask us to vacate the hostel,” she said.

An official of the college, who is a member of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA), told our reporter that the management directed parents to immediately evacuate their children because of bandits’ attack on Sheda village.

“You know it is a fence that separates Sheda village from the school, and the attack by bandits on the village amid sporadic gunshots that Saturday, caused serious panic to both students and management,” he said.

Attempt by our reporter to have access into the school were not successful as security men at the gate denied him access. The school management could also not be reached for comments.

Spokesperson of the FCT Police Command, DSP Adeh Josephine, has not replied to text message sent to her about the incident.

There have been mass abduction from schools in the country by Boko Haram insurgents and bandits.