Governor Bello Masari of Katsina State on Wednesday countered a claim by the Boko Haram terrorist group on the kidnap of schoolchildren in Kankara, insisting that the boys were abducted by bandits.
“I am Abubakar Shekau and our brothers are behind the kidnapping in Katsina,” the leader of Boko Haram claimed in a voice message a few days after an attack on Government Science Secondary School, Kankara led to the missing of at least three hundred and thirty-three students.
But Masari has refuted the claim and said schoolchildren were abducted by local bandits who are “known to all of us.”
“From the information available to us, this was conducted, executed by local bandits that are known to all of us,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
“These are bandits that are roaming the forests of Zamfara and parts of Kaduna State. So far, this is the information we have. Whatever role any other terrorist group must have played, we are yet to confirm it.”
While not ruling out a possible role played by terrorist groups in the abduction of the students, the former House of Representatives Speaker, he maintained that “so far, we are yet to see the linkage.”
“But with regards to this abduction, we have not seen any direct involvement of Boko Haram or ISWAP, ” the governor of the north-western state added.
