ABUJA: More than 130 children kidnapped at gunpoint earlier this month have been safely returned before the ransom deadline, the Nigerian government has said.
According to Al Jazeera’s report, government spokesman Abdulaziz Abdulaziz said that several behind-the-scenes measures were taken to recover the children who were abducted on March 7 in the town of Koriga in Kaduna state.
He said all the children have been released and are doing well, putting the total number of children at 137, far short of the list of 286 students and one staff member according to media reports.
The spokesperson claimed that the media reports were not true but did not give further details.
According to Kemi Kanyeudo, a member of Partners West Africa-Nigeria, the reason for the manipulation of the numbers is the lack of accountability and lack of attention in all sectors.
He said that this means that the public is not being given accurate information about how many children were actually abducted.
Earlier, Kaduna Governor Oba Sani said in a statement that the hostages were recovered after a security operation under the National Security Adviser.
The governor said that we thank all the citizens who worked for the safe return of the kidnapped school children and today is a day of joy. Demonstrated that the security of all citizens can be ensured by eliminating criminal elements.
The kidnappers last week demanded a ransom of one billion naira for the release of the school children and staff and threatened to kill the hostages if the ransom was not paid within 20 days.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, on the other hand, said the ransom would not be paid as such measures were banned after the end of the insurgents in 2022.
It should be noted that this is the biggest incident of student abduction in Nigeria since November 2021, while incidents of kidnapping of school children by armed men are frequent in Nigeria.
On March 9, 15 children were abducted from a school in Gidan Bakosu village in Sokoto State, before 87 children, including women, were abducted in Kajura area of Kaduna on March 18.
