AT least 32 abducted students of Bethel Baptist High School, Kaduna, have regained their freedom.
The students were released yesterday by the bandits at a village in Chikun Local Government Area of the state.
They were freed just five days after the bandits released 15 students to their families.
The state Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. John Hayab, confirmed the release of the students today.
Hayab said: “Yes, 32 of our students were freed on Friday evening. We still have 31 with the captors and we are praying that they too will be released soon”.
When contacted, the Kaduna state Police Command Public Relations Officer, ASP Muhammad Jalige confirmed the release of the 32 students.
The bandits had on July 5 abducted 121 students from the college located in the Maraban area of Kaduna metropolis.
The latest development brought the number of students that had regained their freedom to 90 while 31 others are still with the bandits.
It is the latest in a series of freed hostages in the country, prompting speculation late yesterday that large ransoms had been paid to the gunmen blamed for a spate of recent abductions.
Among those now free are some of the youngest children ever taken hostage, a group of 90 pupils who had spent three months in captivity in Niger State.
Hours after those youngsters met with Governor Sani Bello, police in Zamfara state said that 15 older students also had been freed there.
Then late yesterday, word came of a third hostage liberation in Kaduna state.
Thirty-two more of the students taken from a Baptist high school in early July also had been freed, according to the Rev. Hayab.
The wave of releases comes after more than 1,000 students have been kidnapped since December, according to an AP tally.
While earlier school abductions had been blamed on Islamic extremists in the northeast, authorities have only said that bandits are behind the latest kidnappings for ransom.
