….Abduct unspecified number of students, VP, three teachers
…Kill policeman, shoot two other pupils
Suspected gunmen, who stormed Federal Government College, Birnin Yauri in Kebbi State, hijacked a bus belonging to a parent to take away their victims.
The gunmen attacked the school on Thursday, kidnapping some students and staff.
One of the school’s teachers, who escaped abduction but pleaded anonymity, said before Thursday’s attack the school had received information on a plan by bandits to invade Birnin Yauri community.
He said to prevent an attack on the school, a mobile police team was deployed in the school last week.
The teacher explained that when the bandits finally stormed the school on Thursday, they overpowered the policemen, who initially engaged them in a shootout.
He said after abducting the students and teachers, the bandits hijacked a bus belonging to the parent of a student, who came to the school to pick his son who was to write JAMB on Saturday, to transport the victims to their hideout.
The teacher added that in the melee that resulted, following the attack, the school authorities were unable to conduct a headcount to ascertain the number of the students abducted by the bandits.
According to him, “All I can tell you now, is one of the policemen guarding the school was killed. Many of our students, both male and female, were abducted by the bandits. It is a co-education school, you know it is a Federal Government College.
“Three or four teachers of the college were abducted. Out of the abductees, there is a Vice Principal and a female teacher. Two students, male and female, were said to have been shot by the bandits. The boy was shot on the buttocks while the girl sustained a gunshot injury on her arm.”
State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Nafiu Abubakar, in a statement, said police operatives were already pursuing the bandits.
