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Africa Subsaharan

200 kidnapped Nigerian students and staff released from captivity

2024-03-25

[IsraelTimes] Kaduna Governor Uba Sani says country’s national security adviser coordinated development, thanks armed forces; doesn’t specify how captives, kidnapped earlier in month, were freed

More than 200 students and staff were freed unharmed after button men kidnapped them from a school in northern Nigeria this month, the Kaduna state governor’s office announced on Sunday, days before the deadline to pay a ransom.

The button men carried out the kidnapping on March 7 in the town of Kuriga in northwestern Kaduna State, the first mass kidnapping in the country since 2021, when more than 150 students were kidnapped from a secondary school in Kaduna.

The murderous Moslem group Boko Haram

... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
was the first to carry out kidnappings from schools in Nigeria, the most notable of which was the kidnapping of 276 students from a girls’ school in Chibok in northeastern Borno state 10 years ago. Some of those girls were not released.

But since then, criminal gangs with no ideological affiliation have largely followed suit, seeking financial ransoms.

Kaduna Governor Uba Sani said the country’s national security adviser had coordinated the release of the students who were kidnapped from a school in Kuriga, but he did not provide further details.

"The kidnapped Kuriga school children are released unharmed," Sani said in a statement that did not specify how they were freed.

"This is indeed a day of joy," he said, thanking the army, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the national security adviser, and "all Nigerians who prayed fervently for the safe return of the school children."

Tinubu had vowed to rescue the children "without paying a dime" as ransom.

"The Nigerian Army also deserves special praise for demonstrating that with courage, determination and commitment, the capabilities of criminal elements can be curbed and security restored to our communities," Sani said.

Last week, the button men demanded a ransom equivalent to about $690,000 in exchange for the release of the students and staff.

The government said it would not pay any ransom after doing so was legally banned in 2022.

However,
man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them...
kidnappings carried out by criminal gangs for ransom have become common in Nigeria, especially in the north of the country, which constitutes a crisis for families and communities that are forced to collect savings to pay the ransom, and in many cases, do not find any way to release their relatives except by selling the land and livestock they own.

Kidnap victims in Nigeria are often freed following negotiations with the authorities, though officials deny ransom payments are made following the 2022 law banning them.

Posted by:trailing wife

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