Tanko Sununu, the lawmaker representing Shanga/ Yauri/ Ngaski federal constituency of Kebbi State, has revealed that the bandits informed the people they would be back to attack the community before they abducted the girls Thursday morning, he added that bandits have been attacking the community uninterrupted for a while now.
Gunmen had on Thursday morning, killed a police officer and kidnapped at least 80 students with five teachers from a federal government college in the remote town of Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State.
READ ALSO: Bandits invade school in Kebbi, abduct female students
The attack has so far been confirmed by the police, some residents of the area, and a teacher of the school.
A teacher in the school, Usman Aliyu, said the gunmen took more than 80 students, most of them females.
He also said the gunmen killed one of the police officers on duty, while they broke through the school gate and went straight to the students’ hostels.
Reacting to the unfortunate incident, the Kebbi State police spokesman Nafiu Abubakar, said the gunmen killed one officer during a gunfire exchange and also shot a student, who is currently receiving medical treatment.
Though the Police are yet to release the exact number of students abducted, a spokesman for the Kebbi state governor said they were still conducting a tally of missing persons.
Another resident, Atiku Aboki, said he went to the school shortly after the gunfire stopped, and had encountered a scene of panic and confusion as people fearfully searched for their children. “When we got there, we saw students crying, teachers crying, everyone is sympathising with people,” he told Reuters by telephone.
He said he later got a call from his brother whose two children are also missing.
Mr Sununu, the lawmaker representing the Yauri constituency said last week, over 300 bandits with AK 47, attacked the communities in Yauri and operated for eight hours uninterrupted.
The lawmaker, while calling on the Federal government to help secure the state, explained how bandits have scared residents of his constituency. Noting that rice farmers and other community residents are unable to go to farm following the incessant attacks in the state.
He said “A week ago we had another calamity when bandits mentioned by eyewitnesses numbering about 250 to 300, each with AK-47 rifles and using very strong motorcycles, came into my constituency.
“They had operated for more than eight hours going house to house, room to room, collecting money, handsets, motorcycles and cattle,” he said.
The lawmaker said residents had initially fled the community after the attack because the bandits warned that they would be back.
“Taking it seriously, some people refused to go back and in the early hours of today, they repeated what they had done earlier after they came into the village around 10.30 am, and took away the girls.
“They were able to have access after a strong fight with some security guards, police that are guarding the Federal Government College, Birnin Yauri, where they succeeded in kidnapping some teachers and an unaccounted number of students.
Some of the students and security men that got injured are currently receiving treatments at the General Hospital Yauri.
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