KADUNA: Three students abducted from Greenfield Varsity found dead

By Kolawole Ojebisi

THREE of the  students abducted from Greenfield University in the  state have been found dead.

Their bodies were said to have been found in  Kwanan Bature village, a location very close to the private institution.

The State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, disclosed this in a statement issued today.

The statement read in part, “In an act of mindless evil and sheer wickedness, the armed bandits who kidnapped students of Greenfield University, have shot dead three of the abducted students.

“The armed bandits on Tuesday night kidnapped an unspecified number of students at the institution located at Kasarami village off Kaduna-Abuja Road in Chikun LGA.

“The remains of three students were found today (Friday), in Kwanan Bature village, a location close to the university and have been evacuated to a mortuary by the Commissioner, Internal Security and Home Affairs, and Force Commander, Operation Thunder Strike, Lt.Col. MH Abdullahi.”

Aruwan also said Nasir el-Rufai, the state governor, described the killing of the students as “sheer wickedness, inhumanity and an outright desecration of human lives by vile entities.”

el-Rufai said the criminals have shown they have no respect for the sanctity of human life stressed that the ugly development “represents the worst of humankind and must be fought at all cost for the violent wickedness they represent.”

“Evil would not triumph over God-given humanity,” the governor added, and further appealed to citizens to come together against “the forces of darkness challenging the very existence of the Nigerian State.”

The students’ corpses were found three days after their school was stormed by the bandits  who killed a porter identified as  Paul Ude Okafor and whisked away 19 students, comprising 15 girls and 4 boys.

The abductors have since established contact with the parents of the abducted students demanding N800m as ransom.

Governor el-Rufai has insisted he won’t pay ransom or negotiate with bandits and the gruesome murder of three of the recently abducted students could have been executed to force the governor to change his stance.

The invasion of Greenfield University is the third time bandits were attacking a school in Kaduna in 2021.

Twenty-nine of the students they abducted from Federal College of Forestry and Mechanisation in Afaka are still being held in captivity despite the threat by their abductors to kill the males and marry off the females among them if their parents dawdle on payment of ransom.