Niger state governor, Abubakar Sani-Bello has confirmed that gunmen abducted 27 students, three staff and 12 families members at the Government Science College Karaga of Rafi local government areas of the state.
The governor made the confirmation during a press conference shortly after an emergency meeting with heads of security agencies in Minna on Wednesday.
ASHENEWS reported earlier that gunmen stormed the school in the earliry hours Wednesday, killing one student and abducting unspecified number of staff.
Meanwhile, the governor has directed that all boarding schools in Shiroro, Rafi and Muyan local government be closed down with immediate effect until the situation improved.
“I call on all Nigerlites to condemn all forms of criminality in the state,” he said.
He called the federal government to deploy all resources to secure the state while the state government was doing everything possible to ensure safe return of the students and staff.
The governor, however, disclosed that out of the 40 passengers abducted, 8 have regained freedom while the remaining were still in the hands of their abductors who were demanding for ransom.
He said that the state government would not pay ransom to the suspected bandits in order to secure the release of their victims, but was ready to support any bandit who was ready to surround arms.
“When you negotiate and pay ransom to criminals, they will use the money to purpose more weapons,” he said.
Government Science College Kagara has a total of 650 students of which 27 were abducted and one student identified as Benjamin Doma was killed.
