Bandits Release 28 Abducted Students of Kaduna School

•Others to be freed in batches
By John Shiklam in Kaduna

Twenty eight of of the remaining 180 abducted students of Bethel Baptist High School, Damishi, Kaduna, have been freed by their captors.

The students were released on Saturday night at a location along Kaduna-Abuja road and were picked on Sunday by leaders of the Baptist Church led by President of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, Rev. Israel Akanji.
But the remaining students, Akanji, President of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, said would be freed in batches.

Bandits, on July 5, invaded the school and abducted the children, aged between 13 and 19 years.
The students were reunited with their parents at the school premises amid jubilation after their release.
Many of the children were emaciated, weak and could barely walk.

But some of the parents were heartbroken as their children were not among those released.
Some of the parents wept profusely while others collapsed and had to be revived when they realised that their children were still in captivity.

The bandits had earlier released one of the students based on health grounds, while two others were reportedly “rescued” by the police.
According to the President Kaduna Baptist Conference, Rev. Ishaya Jangado, the bandits will be releasing the children in batches.

“I have been talking with the bandits and they told me that the children would be released in batches and they have released the first batch of 28. I appealed to parents whose children are not among the first batch not to despair as they will be released too by the grace of God.

“If your child is not among those released don’t be disappointed, let’s keep praying”, he said.
Also speaking in an interview after praying and reuniting the children with their parents, Israel Akanji, said a lot of efforts were made to ensure the release of the children.
He, however, denied claims by some parents that N100m was paid as ransom.

According to him, “a lot of efforts were made to ensure the release of the students. The number one effort was prayers. We prayed and prayed. We spoke to security agents, we spoke to the governor of Kaduna State and he promised that he was going to do his best to ensure the release of the children.

“We have waited, it is about three weeks now and finally we are grateful that we have this batch that have come. All together we have received 34 students out of the 121. We are still expecting 87, who have not come back yet.”

Akanji said further that the children were released by the bandits themselves.
“The children were just released by the people, who abducted them. They kept them in a place and they called us and we went and carried them in our vehicles and brought them. Our prayer is that they will release the remaining students,” he said.

Akanji said the church did not pay any ransom to the bandits.
“I don’t know where you got your information. I have heard a lot of information in the media. Some said we paid N60 million, some said we paid N100m. What we said is that as a church, we will not pay ransom, because it is not right to pay people who have done what is wrong. However you know that we are not the only ones concerned about the children”, he said.

According to him, there were parents, well-wishers and neighbours, who were struggling for the children for the children to be released, “therefore, we cannot really restrict people from their actions in getting the children out, but as a group we do not believe in paying ransom. I cannot answer for those who probably must have been involved in certain ways.”
Akanji said the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, had promised to assist when the students were abducted.

“He (the governor) told me that security matters cannot be divulged. We actually expected that whatever he was doing should have resulted in the release of the children before now. However, they were not released and we kept agitating. We wanted the promise of the governor to be fulfilled earlier than now.

“Right now I cannot say exactly what he has done, because he himself was not willing to give us details of what he would be doing. Whatever it is that he has done, what we all know is that God has released the children.”

Unlike in the past when the state government and security agencies took charge of students freed by bandits, no government official or security agency was present as the leaders of the church drove the students straight to the school and handed them to their parents.

The Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, was chased away by angry parents, when he visited the school the day they were abducted.

Probably as a result of that incident, the state government and security personnel, who the parents had always accused of not doing much, might have decided to hands off.

In another development kidnappers of pupils of an Islamic school, Tegina, Niger State, have abducted a man, who was sent to deliver a N30m ransom for the release of the children.

In May, the bandits invaded the school and abducted 136. Parents of the children were said to have contributed N30m for the release of their children.
Kaduna, Niger and Zamafa States have become a den for bandits, with people being killed or abducted almost on a daily basis.