* Abductors different from the group I met, say Sheik Gumi
Gunmen, on Friday, reportedly invaded Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe, in Talata Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State and abducted an unspecified number of students.
The Zamfara State Commissioner for Security and Home Affairs, Alhaji Abubakar Dauran, confirmed the abduction, but not the number of girls taken away
This is coming less than 10 days after terrorists killed a student, abducted 27 students and three workers of Government Science College, Kagara, Niger State, including 12 relatives of the staff and students in the process.
A resident in Kawaye village, who identified himself as Sadi Kawaye, said his daughters – Mansura and Sakina – among those abducted.
“I’m on my way to Jangebe now to see the situation myself. I was told they invaded the school around 1:00am,” he said.
The spokesman of the State Police Command, SP Muhammad Shehu, did not refute the abduction of the students, rather he pleaded for time to ascertain the true situation.
“Give me some times, I can’t say anything now,” he was quoted to have said.
However, Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi said abductors of the Zamfara schoolgirls are not the gang of bandits he recently engaged with in Zamfara State forests.
He argued that this latest abduction was probably carried out by a splinter group of the Zamfara bandits.
Sheik Gumi said: “They are not the ones that abducted the girls. It is a splinter group.”
Asked whether he would be going to Zamfara to meet the bandits for talks and plead for release of the school girls, Sheikh Gumi simply said: “Maybe”.