The parents of some of the 285 students abducted by bandits on Thursday from the LEA Primary and Junior Secondary School, Kuriga, Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, have cried out for help.
In separate interviews with Daily Trust at the weekend, the distraught parents appealed to the federal government and the Kaduna State government to assist in securing the release of their children.
Fati Kuriga, mother of one of the abductees, Suleiman, called on Governor Uba Sani to do all within his powers to fast track the safe return of her son and all the other abductees.
“My name is Fatima, I am the mother of Suleiman who was kidnapped in school. We are begging the Kaduna State governor to help us. While I was sitting at home on Thursday after my son went to school, I heard sounds of gunshots and when I came out, I was told it was bandits who came and kidnapped our children.
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“We are appealing to the Kaduna State government to help us. We are running out of food and in a terrible condition. Our husbands don’t sleep at night because they are on patrol of our community against bandits’ attacks. Now, our abducted children are in a pathetic situation in the bush without food and water coupled with the hot weather.
“Even the boy that escaped, we saw how terrified he was when he came. He told us that in the daytime, they (the bandits) would throw them into a hole in the forest. We don’t have presence of security operatives in Kuriga. I heard what the governor said when he came; we pray that he will keep to his words.
“We are also calling on the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, to come to our aid. These bandits are in the bush very close to our community. So, we need help,” Fatima said.
Khadijah Abdulrauf, mother of another abducted student, who said she was missing her daughter, Safiya Hassan, wanted government’s quick intervention to get her and others out of captivity.
“My daughter, Safiya Hassan, was sick when she left for school on the fateful day. She did not even take breakfast because I didn’t want her to be late.
She stated: “Bandits invaded the school and trapped our children. Our youths tried to rescue them, but they were overpowered by the bandits because our youths do not have weapons while the bandits were carrying guns. We were helplessly watching them taking our children to the bush; we cried and are still crying. We are begging the governor to help us rescue our children.
“We have serious security challenges in Kuriga where our youths sleep in the bush to protect our community. We don’t have cows or sheep in our village because the bandits have rustled all and we are left with nothing. We are battling hunger now.
“We are begging the government to rescue our children. They (bandits) came here and killed the school principal recently, and after one week, they came back to abduct our children. We are devastated because our children cannot eat food. We don’t have security; we have only God to protect us.
“The only thing we enjoy from government is the school, and now they have abducted our children. I am hypertensive and my husband is helpless. If our people go to farm, they will be kidnapped and they will ask us to pay ransom, which we cannot afford. We can no longer rear animals as well. We are poor and begging for help”, she stressed.
According to Shehu Usman Lawal, father of 10-year-old Aminu, the abduction of his son is so devastating that he hardly sleeps.
He said the abductors were yet to contact him for ransom and appealed for the government’s intervention.
“My wife and I can no longer sleep since our son was kidnapped. We are appealing for help to rescue our children so that we can have rest of mind as we don’t enjoy life anymore. Most of the children did not even take breakfast when they were kidnapped; and most of them are very small children.
“We are worried because we don’t know their condition now. If you go to our houses now, you will shed tears.
“The bandits have not yet contacted us for ransom because most of the victims are small and they don’t have mobile phones with them. We do not even have the money because they have destroyed our farms. So, if they ask for ransom, we can’t raise the money,” Lawal said.
Abdullahi Usman, a brother to Aminu Lawal, escaped being kidnapped from the school.
He narrated the incident: “The bandits came on motorcycles, shouting and shooting in the air. We ran for our dear lives, but one of them pursued me on a motorcycle while I was running. Luckily, God saved me; he didn’t get me. I went through the bush and returned home.”
Another student, Khalid Ahmad, escaped from the bandits, but lost his brother, Rabilu Ahmad, during the attack.
He recounted: “They (bandits) came shooting at anyone they saw. When my younger brother tried to escape and save his younger siblings, they shot him.”
17-year-old Mustapha Abubakar, who also escaped from the hands of the bandits, recounted that the students were about finishing the morning assembly when the bandits arrived.
“We were about to leave for our classes after we finished the assembly, then suddenly the bandits came and marched us in to the forest.
“It was God that saved me. While we were trekking in the bush, I was thinking of how to escape. Then, we reached a place where I saw a deep hole. So, I maneuvered and jumped into the hole and hid myself there for an hour. When they passed, I came out and saw an old man. I begged him to help me, but he couldn’t as he was also frightened.
“So, I continued trekking for another two or three hours, though weak, until I reached a place where there was water; I drank and poured it on my body. Then I met firewood cutters and I asked them where I was, and they told me I was at Sabon Gayan. From there, I found my way back home.
“They only gave us three oranges to share among ourselves, though we were very hungry and only ate fruits from the trees”, Abubakar said.
28 students didn’t return, residents counter government
Meanwhile, some residents of Kuriga have faulted a media report credited to the state government that 28 students escaped from their abductors, saying only one returned home on Friday morning.
A resident, Lawal Kuriga, said since the abduction, there had been no contact from their abductors.
“We’ve not heard from their abductors, and it was not true that 28 of the students had escaped because since the abduction, only one student returned from the forest after he escaped,” Lawal said.
A father of one of the captives, also said: “We’re yet to see any of the students that escaped, with the exception of the first student who escaped on Friday. But we’re hoping that all our children will return safely, God willing.”
A lead in the community, Malam Ishaq Kuriga, also disputed the report that 28 students had escaped.
“We are not aware of such information that some children had returned or escaped. I can assure you that all the children are from Kuriga town, not even from outside the village, and their parents are indigenes of this town.
He appealed to the government and the security agencies to ensure safe return of the students.
He also said the captors had not reached out to the parents of the captives.
Governor Sani had, hours after the incident on Thursday, visited the community and assured that all the students would be rescued unharmed.
Similarly, the federal government had said it would spare no effort in its pursuit of justice for the victims, and in its determination to hold the abductors accountable “to the full extent of the law.”
