Hundreds of kidnapped Nigerian school students released: governor

ABUJA, Nigeria: The more than 250 school students seized by gunmen in a mass kidnapping in northwestern Nigeria earlier this month have been released, the local governor said on Sunday.

“The abducted Kuriga school children are released unharmed,” Kaduna state governor Uba Sani said in a statement that did not specify how they were freed.

Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had sent troops to rescue pupils kidnapped by gunmen from a school in the country’s northwest in one of the largest mass abductions in three years.

The Kaduna state attack was the second mass kidnapping in a week in Africa’s most populous country, where heavily armed criminal gangs on motorbikes target victims in villages and schools and along highways in the hunt for ransom payments.

Gunmen who kidnapped 286 students and staff from a school in northern Nigeria last week have demanded a total of 1 billion naira ($620,432) for their release, a spokesman for the families of the hostages and a local councillor told Reuters.

The school children, some older students and members of the school staff were abducted on March 7 in the town of Kuriga, in Nigeria’s northwestern Kaduna State, in the first mass kidnapping in the country since 2021.

Jubril Aminu, a community leader who acts as a spokesman for the families of the hostages, said he had received a call on his phone from the kidnappers on Tuesday.

“They made a total of a 1 billion (naira) ransom demand for all the pupils, students and staff of the school,” Aminu said.

“They gave an ultimatum to pay the ransom within 20 days, effective from the date of the kidnap. They said they will kill all the students and the staff if the ransom demand is not met.”

Idris Ibrahim, an elected official from the Kuriga Ward municipal council, confirmed the ransom demand and the amount.

“Yes, the kidnappers called the community through Jubril Aminu’s number and made the demand,” he said.

“They called from a hidden number but the authorities are working on getting the number,” Ibrahim told Reuters.

He added that the security forces were taking “adequate measures” to secure the release of the students.