Kagara students, others released as Niger governor confirm their release

The abducted students of Government Science College, Kagara, in Niger State, have been released.
Their relatives and staff also taken are now out of captivity. They all regained freedom Saturday morning.
It is unclear if ransom was paid for their release. DAILY POST gathered that the victims would be taken to the Government House in Minna.
The bandits had threatened to hold them as long as they wished if the government failed to meet their demands.
The bandits, dressed in military uniforms, stormed the school last week. They seized 27 students, 12 relatives and 3 staff members.
On Friday, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had condemned recent abductions. The opposition lamented the latest incident at the Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe in Zamfara State.
PDP said kidnapping by bandits had become a making-making venture under President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
Kola Ologbondiyan, the spokesman, in a statement, said the party earlier alerted of a link between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the outlaws.
“It is unpardonable that the APC has failed to rein in their bandits, who they brought from neighboring countries to help them to muscle the 2019 election.”
Ologbondiyan said instead, APC allowed them to continue to invade communities and wreak havoc on Nigerians.
The party noted that acts of terrorism validates concerns that the ruling APC and its administration have become bereft of solutions.
The PDP said kidnapping of school children and other vulnerable people for ransom turned lucrative due to “the lethargic approach and compromises under the Buhari administration”.
The party told President Buhari to step out of the Aso Rock presidential villa and ensure the immediate rescue of more than 300 schoolgirls abducted.
Meanwhile, Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger state has confirmed the release of the 27 students, kidnapped by gunmen from Government Science secondary school, Kagara on 17 February.
The students were released along with 15 others.
“The Abducted Students, Staff and Relatives of Government Science Collage Kagara have regained their freedom and have been received by the Niger State Government”, Bello tweeted on Saturday.
Their release comes just a day after a separate raid on a school in Zamfara state where gunmen seized 317 girls.
Kidnappings for ransom by armed groups, many of whom carry guns and ride motorcycles, are common across many northern Nigerian states.
The recent attacks have raised concern about rising violence by armed gangs and Islamist insurgents.
Jihadist group Boko Haram carries out abductions in Nigeria’s turbulent northeast, as does a branch of Islamic State.
And according to security experts, some of the terrorists may be operating in the North west as well.
The abductions have become a political problem for President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired general who promised in 2015 to secure Nigeria, better than President Goodluck Jonathan.