The abductors of six female students and two teachers of Engravers College last Thursday in Kakau Daji of Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State have made contact with parents and administrators of the school, amid unconfirmed speculations they asked for N50m to free the abductees.
At the State House in Abuja on Friday, State Governor, Malam Nair el Rufai, confirmed that contacts have been made though he did not speak on the ransom demanded by the abductors.
He also disclosed that the government months ago had put security measures in place when it filtered in that criminal elements were targeting schools in the State.
“We have been receiving intelligence from three months ago that the bandits have connected with some elements of\u00a0Boko Haram\u00a0and that they will be targeting schools to kidnap children because they know that\u2019s what makes the news, and we have reinforced security around our schools.
\u201cBut this school called Engravers Academy is in the middle of nowhere, until two days ago when the kidnap happened, I did not know the school existed.
\u201cIt is right in the middle of the bush off along Abuja\/Kaduna road, right in the middle of nowhere, that\u2019s why it became vulnerable .
\u201cOur other schools are protected and no one should have any doubt that if your child is in school in Kaduna state.. we are doing our best to prorect him or her,” he said
One of the parents on Friday said the kidnappers had made contact with the management of the school where they demanded for the N50m ransom.
The unnamed parent said: \u201cWe were told that the school authority told the kidnappers that they could only afford to pay N100, 000 for the release of the students and their teachers. The kidnappers told them they are not serious to get the children back. Negotiation is still going on.\u201d The kidnappers, it was gathered actually asked for N30 million per head.
But a worried parent, Mr. Julde Juli, whose 15 years old daughter was among abductees, prayed that nothing untoward happens to the girls and their teachers.
He urged all those that indulge in kidnapping for money to repent of their sins.
Meanwhile, Governor el Rufai insists that the government was working assiduously to secure the release of the students and teachers.
His words to journalists in Abuja, \u201cI must say its most unfortunate for us in Kaduna for the kidnap of children and teachers.
\u201dThe report\u00a0I got that six students of a private secondary school were\u00a0kidnapped along with two teachers.
\u201cThis morning, the\u00a0kidnappers\u00a0have made contacts to the parents and we have got the parents of the kidnapped students and the relations of the teachers to be in one place so that there is\u00a0one line of communication\u00a0with the kidnapoers to facilitate their release.
\u201cHowever, from the moment of the kidnap,\u00a0the security agencies, all agencies of the SSS to the police, air force and the army have been on the matter.
\u201cAnd I am confident that not only are we going to secure the release of the\u00a0students and their teachers,\u00a0but we are going to get the kidnappers by the grace of God, the governor prayed .
\u201cIt is always a moment of sadness when\u00a0young people\u00a0that are trying to get an education become victims of these criminals.
\u201cBut kidnapping has become so wide spread now that for many people, it is not news.
\u201cBut for us in Kaduna, this is one of the biggest tragedies and we are doing everything to manage the situation to get the students and their teachers safely and pursue these kidnappers with everything that we got.
\u201cWe appreciate the SSS and the Police for being very vigilant, on this their response was quick but unfortunately we are having to deal with this situation.
\u201cBut I\u2019m confident that it will be resolved and it will be resolved very soon.”
He spoke further: \u201cWe already had this arrangement in place three months ago, this is what I\u2019m saying.
\u201cThis school fell through the cuts because it is quite isolated, kilometres off Kaduna \/Abuja road, that is why it was vulnerable.
\u201cBut other schools are being watched. We do regular surveillance, we use Nigeria airforce planes, we use drones.
\u201cWe do regular surveillance all across the state we get intelligence as to likely targets.
\u201cSo, with the help of the security agencies we are doing the best we can on this.
\u201cBut of course, you can never get this one hundred percent.
\u201cAs security challenges evolve, as you close this chapter, another chapter opens, so, it\u2019s work in progress.
\u201cThe reason why we are here is to continue to address those problems.
\u201cAll I am saying is that we are trying to do so with the best resources available and we are getting the cooperation of all the Federal Agencies and we are grateful for that.”
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The abductors of six female students and two teachers of Engravers College last Thursday in Kakau Daji of Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State have made contact with parents and administrators of the school, amid unconfirmed speculations they asked for N50m to free the abductees. At the State House in Abuja on Friday, State […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}