KADUNA: Five abducted Afaka students freed, 34 still held – Govt

THE state government has announced that five of the 39 abducted students, of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Mando in Igabi Local Government Area, have regained freedom.

Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, in a statement issued today, said, “The Nigerian military has informed the Kaduna State Government that five of the many kidnapped students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization, Afaka, Kaduna were recovered this afternoon and are presently in a military facility where they are undergoing a thorough medical check-up.

“The Kaduna State Government will provide updates on further operational feedback to be received on this case.”

This development came barely 24 hours after the El-rufai government restated its aversion to negotiation with bandits.

The government stressed that it had not asked any individuals or organisation to negotiate on its behalf to secure the release of the Afaka students, noting that anyone caught doing so would be prosecuted.

On Thursday night, March 11, 2021, bandits in their large numbers, invaded the school located opposite the Nigerian Defence Academy along the Kaduna International Airport road and abducted them.

Days later, some of the students were seen in a viral video being subjected to inhuman treatment by the abductors.

The video was released by their abductors purportedly to force the government to negotiate the release of the students.

But Governor El-rufai stuck to his guns insisting he would rather kill bandits than negotiate or grant amnesty to them.

Before they regained their freedom today, the five students, together with others still held in the clutches of their abductors, had spent 26 days in the bandits’ den.