Katsina state Governor Aminu Bello Masari has said government was still searching for 333 missing students recently abducted by gunmen in the state.
The total number of students in the school, our reporter gathered, was put at 839.
Last Friday night, suspected bandits attacked Government Science Secondary School (GSSS), Kankara and abducted unspecified number of students.
The police authority claimed to have rescued about 200 of the abducted students.
Speaking Sunday while receiving a delegation of Service Chiefs led by Minister of Defence, Major-General Bashir Salihi Magashi (rtd), who were on a sympathy visit, Masari said based on record available to government, 333 students could still not be traced.
He, however, said his administration, in collaboration with security and parents of the missing students were working to trace the remaining students.
“We are still searching for 333 students to know the actual number of students kidnapped by the bandits,” the governor said.
Masari said since the incident, no group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Governor Masari also directed that all primary and secondary schools across the state be shut down until further notice, thus signaling an abrupt end of the 2019/202 academic session in the state.
In his remarks, leader of the delegation, General Magashi explained that the service chiefs had been adequately briefed by the Brigade Commander, Police Commissioner and the Department of State Security (DSS) on the attack.
He assured that within the shortest possible time, the remaining students would be rescued as the military were on top of the rescue mission.
Magashi said: “We are tracing their location; we will rescue them in the couple of hours.”
He said all the students would be rescued without collateral damage, adding that the security agencies had already declared the act of the gunmen as terrorism.
Meanwhile, some parents of the abducted students have demanded for the quick rescue of their wards.
One of them, Mrs. Iklima Idris, whose son also got missing, accused the government of negligence, saying only children of the poor experienced series of attack and kidnapping in the state.
“Our children were being abducted because we are poor,” she claimed.
Another Kankara resident revealed that the gunmen, numbering over 150, came on motorcycles and invaded the school some minutes after 10pm on the ill-fated day.
He said the gunmen blocked all possible exit points leading to the school and operated for over 20 minutes before the arrival of security operatives
But spokesperson of the state police command, SP Gambo Isa said the police team had successfully rescued 200 of the students from the bush.
He said a police officer shot during the operation was currently responding to medical attention.
One of the students who survived the kidnap, said most of the abducted persons were secondary one and two classes, saying they were assembled and separated into groups in the bush.
He said: “Two of us were lucky to escape during the separation that night with the assistance of some nearby villagers.”
