Students of the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State abducted last Friday night by gunmen, have been freed by their captors, according to reports.
A breaking news on ARISE TV Thursday said the abducted 344 schoolboys had been released and were being escorted by Nigerian security forces to the state capital to meet with the governor, Aminu Masari.
Spokesman of the governor, Abdu Labaran Malumfashi, told THISDAY Thursday night that Mr. Masari was on ground awaiting the arrival of the freed schoolboys.
Gunmen had last Friday attacked Government Science Secondary School, Kankara in Katsina State and abducted hundreds of schoolboys, barely hours after President Muhammadu Buhari arrived Daura – his hometown in Katsina State – for a week-long private visit.
The state governor, Aminu Masari, had said 333 of the students of the school were unaccounted for after the attack.
A statement by the Nigerian presidency later claimed that the location of the abducted schoolboys had been discovered and negotiations were ongoing with their kidnappers for their safe return.
Earlier on Thursday, terror group, Boko Haram, released a video showing some of the abducted schoolboys.
In the six minutes and 30 seconds video, featuring Boko Haram’s emblem, a group of boys in the bush were seen begging Nigerian security forces to leave the area.
One of the schoolboys who spoke pleaded with the Nigerian security forces not to engage their kidnappers with force and urged government to go into negotiation for their release.
“Please, you have to dissolve any gang of vigilantes, close any kind of schools, excluding Islamiyya. All the troops who have come here to help us, please send them back,” the schoolboy pleaded, though he may have done so under duress.
The Nigerian government and security agencies are yet to react to the release of the video by the terror group.
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