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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Presidency disagrees with Katsina gov, says 10 schoolboys in captivity |
| 2020-12-14 |
| [PUNCHNG] The Presidency has disagreed with Katsina State Governor, Bello Masari, over the number of boys abducted from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State. Masari had said on Sunday that 333 boys were still missing. However, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, told the BBC Hausa Service that only 10 boys are with the bandits. The BBC Hausa bulletin read, “The Government of Nigeria has said its security forces have surrounded the location where gunmen have kept schoolchildren abducted from a secondary school in Katsina State. “Spokesman for the President, Mallam Garba Shehu, told the BBC only 10 children were remaining in the hands of the gunmen according to their colleagues who escaped from the gunmen. The number is below figures released by school authorities at the beginning. Garba Shehu said the school children who escaped said 10 of their friends were still with their abductors.” Parents pray for hundreds of students kidnapped in Nigeria's Katsina [AlAhram] Parents converged on a secondary school in Nigeria's northwestern Katsina state on Sunday, begging authorities to save hundreds of boys kidnapped by button men. The army had exchanged fire with a gang that took the students from the all-boys Government Science school in Kankara, a front man for the president said on Saturday night, but parents on Sunday said they had heard little more on the fate of their children. The president's office declined to comment, referring queries to the police. Military and police did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Some boys seen by Rooters said they had beat feet from the forest where the button men took them, but it was not immediately clear how many remained in captivity or what the group wanted. Attacks by armed gangs, widely referred to as bandidos, are common throughout northwestern Nigeria. The groups typically attack civilians, stealing or kidnapping them for ransom. Islamist hard boys, who attack security and civilian targets, are more common in the northeastern part of the country. Northwest = bandidos, northeast = jihadis. Good to know. There is growing anger with the precarious security situation in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation. Late last month, Islamist Death Eaters killed scores of farmers in northeastern Borno state, beheading some of them. |
| Posted by:Fred |