Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State has ordered the closure of all boarding schools till further notice following Friday night attack by gunmen on Government Science secondary school, Kankara local government area of the state.
The Governor gave the order while speaking with newsmen shortly after visiting the scene of incident on Saturday.
Masari said the schools should be shut down and the children returned to their respective homes.
This was also coming as the State’s Commissioner of Education, Associate Professor Badamasi Charanchi said a total of about 406 students were found after the gunmen attack on the school.
Charanchi stated this while addressing residents, parents and guardians in the school premises in a short video going viral on social media.
The Commissioner upon interaction with some of the students who found their way back, said they passed the night inside the bush walking all through.
“The children have continued to return and according to report available, the number of the missing children who have returned are now 406 including the earlier ones found.
“We have interacted with many of the children who said some passed the night in the bush walking all through.
“Parents who come and upon identification of their children, we will hand over their children to them to return back home,” the Commissioner, Charanchi stated.
The Katsina State Police Command says it has rescued over 200 of the students back to the school compound.
The Command’s spokesperson, SP Gambo Isah stated this while confirming the ugly incident.
This was also as he said the command, Army and Air Force has launched manhunt and working closely with the school authorities with a view to search and rescue the remaining missing and kidnapped students.
SP Isah said one of it men was injured during the attack.
Bandits in their numbers, shooting sporadically with AK 47 rifles, attacked Government Science secondary school, Kankara.
The policemen on duty also responded to the attack and engaged them in a gun duel which gave the students opportunity to scaled the fence of the school and ran for safety.
“The DPO reinforced the policemen on duty with Armoured Personnel Carrier, (APC) which forced the hoodlums to retreat back into the forest.
“One Inspector sustained a gunshot wound and was taken to the hospital and is responding to treatment.
“In the course of investigation, the DPO rescued over two hundred students back into the school compound.
The police, Nigerian Army, and Nigerian Air Force are working closely with the school authorities to ascertain the actual number of the missing and/or kidnapped students while search parties are assidiously working with a view to find and/or rescue the missing students.
It will be too early to say at this particular moment the actual number of students that have been kidnapped or missing,” the PPRO, SP Isah said.
Meanwhile, the Special Adviser on Security, Ibrahim Katsina, appeal to all citizens to see the security challenges as collective.
“While Governments at different levels are doing everything humanly possible to ensure the safety of lives and properties, it’s very important to understand that due to the complexity of the problem, we can only succeed in solving the problem through collective efforts and sincere partnership as commendably demonstrated by the people of Kankara yesterday night leading to the chasing away of the bandits.
“Bandits operates by using information mostly sourced from the bad eggs living in our communities.
These bad eggs monitor Government security plans and choose soft targets for the bandits thereby making it cumbersome for government to detect and preempt such attacks. It’s only a collaboration between official and local intelligence apparatuses that we could curtail incidences like this,” the S.A on Security, Ibrahim Katsina stated.
