On Sunday morning, the Kaduna State Government and the Defence Headquarters announced the return of 137 abducted pupils and students of LEA School, Kuriga, Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
Governor Uba Sani and Major General Edward Buba, Director of Defence Media Operations, issued separate statements confirming the development. While Sani did not state the number of returnees, Buba said the military rescued 76 females and 61 males, totalling 137.
Referring to the March 7 abduction, Buba’s statement partly read: “During the incident, unconfirmed number of pupils were abducted.”
On Sunday, FIJ visited the Kuriga LEA school where the attack occurred and confirmed from security personnel what the actual figures were. During the course of our visit, the Kaduna State government was in a meeting with the Chikun LGA chairman, dignitaries from Kuriga and other stakeholders in the government house.
At that meeting, the government questioned the total number of abducted persons, as only 137 had been rescued. This dispute led to the school’s vice principal having to produce attendance sheets for junior and senior secondary school students present on that day, who were all discovered to be missing. What he did not have was the register for the primary school. This register was in Kuriga.
Sources told FIJ that the government and military representatives at the meeting began quizzing the community representatives over the primary school attendance lists for the day and sent for the files to arrive from Kuriga the same day. FIJ saw them before they were transported to the government house at about 12:30 pm.
“Some persons escaped that day and found their ways out of captivity,” Jibrin Kuriga, a resident of the area, whose 9-year-old daughter was abducted, told FIJ. “These people who escaped were not up to 50, so they do not account for the total number of persons still missing.
“We don’t know the total figure yet, but even the government has not told us how many they rescued or what their names are.”
Jibrin was in the meeting with the government, and FIJ interviewed him at the government house after the meeting. He was involved in talks, as he was the first person the terrorists spoke with after the abduction.
Kuriga residents described him as a negotiator and intermediary between the community, government and terrorists and said he was the one who informed them of the N1 billion ransom demand.
“We told Jibrin we do not have that kind of money,” some of the abducted schoolchildren’s parents told FIJ. “But he told us the terrorists did not want our money; they wanted N1 billion from the government because the children were ‘government’s children’, according to them.”
When FIJ asked Jibrin if the government paid ransom, he said, “No! No ransom was paid.” But he stated that he did not know how the military rescued the children or if any arrests were made. He also said he was not the only one with access to the terrorists.
Meanwhile, FIJ confirmed 287 persons were abducted on March 7.
“We have the full list. There were 287 abductees, including pupils, students and teachers,” a security officer told FIJ. “This list was compiled by parents and teachers and given to the vice principal because even the principal of the junior secondary school was kidnapped.
“The government and military have not said anything about the principal’s rescue or release. The highest-ranking staff member is the vice principal, and he was at the meeting in the government house. The school had two principals: one for the senior secondary school and another for the junior secondary school. The senior secondary school principal was killed in his home earlier this year, while the junior one was abducted on March 7. The total number is 287.”
FIJ learned that the schoolchildren had been taken to a military hospital for a check-up and would likely be presented to their parents on Monday.
FIJ called Abdallah Yunusah, a senior special assistant to the Kaduna State Governor on media and publicity, but his number was unreachable. As of press time, he also had not responded to our text message.
Credit: FIJ Nigeria
