Bandits reportedly kidnapped over 84 Islamic school students in Dandume town, northwestern Nigeria, on Saturday night, but the Students were quickly rescued by security forces after a fierce gun battle, the Nigeria police announced on Sunday.
REPORT AFRIQUE reported how 333 students of Government Science School in Kankara, Katsina were abducted by gunmen on the 11th of December and later released on the 17th of December, 2020.
Parts of northern Nigeria have been besieged by divers groups of armed criminals terrorizing locals and leaving scores dead over the years.
Dandume town, where this latest kidnap took place, is about 64 kilometers from Kankara, where the previous kidnap took place.
The bandits had already abducted four people and stolen a dozen cows when they ran into the schoolchildren who were on their way home from a celebration, Katsina state police spokesman, Gambo Isa, said early Sunday morning. Police and a local community self-defense group rescued the children from the bandits after a gunfight, he said.
“The teams succeeded in dislodging the bandits and rescued all the 84 kidnapped victims and recovered all the 12 rustled cows.” said Isa in a statement. “Search parties are still combing the area with a view of arresting the injured bandits and/or the recovery of their dead bodies.”
Dandume, an area bordering the northern part of Kaduna state, is one of the region’s hotspots for banditry and kidnapping, according to residents.
“Dandume is a no-go-area for many of us because of the high level of crimes and insecurity being perpetrated by armed bandits,” said Saidu Lawal, an official of a local civic group in Katsina, told The Associated Press.
“Despite government efforts to open up the area by constructing roads leading from the metropolitan locations to the hinterlands of Dandume … the banditry still persists,” said Lawal. “On many occasions, the bandits block the Dandume-Sabuwa highways to attack travelers. It was based on that reason that many people have abandoned the new route.”
Officials did not say if the Kidnap at Dandume was carried out by the same group of gunmen who abducted the schoolboys in Kankara.
