The recent attack on the Federal Government College, Birnin-Yauri in Kebbi State, that saw to the kidnap of many students and a teacher, was not unexpected, officials have said.
A former Governor of the state and serving Senator, Adamu Aliero said the bandits had given a prior notice before they struck.
“It wasn’t unexpected because Kebbi shares border with Zamfara and also Niger state. These two states have suffered a lot of banditry attacks.
It is true that the bandits have been around for four to five days and they have been giving warning. They even sent a student with a letter to the principal that they are coming to the college but the warning was ignored,” he said during a ChannelsTV programme monitored by POLITICS NIGERIA.
He continued: “Nobody took them serious and that’s the problem we have.”
Aliero said they ignored the warning probably because there were 21 mobile policemen deployed to the school before now. According to the former Governor, the police officer that was killed was trying to drive away the bandits.
“There was a gun battle between the policemen and also the bandit to the extent that the bandits overpowered the policemen. They had about 150 motorcycles and each of the motorcycle from what I was told, was carrying two bandits armed with Ak-47.”
He said most of the bandits are not Nigerians, citing the reports from five of the students that were rescued.
Some of them are from Chad, Niger Republic, Central Africa, the lawmaker stated.
Also, a House of Representatives member, Tanko Sununu, described the attack as a promise fulfilled by bandits.
“What really happened is that about two weeks ago, we had an episode when bandits residing within parts of the areas bordering Zamfara, Niger, and Kebbi came up through one of the villages in my constituency.
“They killed a policeman and found their way until they reached Ibeto area where we have a quarry, killed some security men and kidnapped some of the foreign workers in the quarry and left,” the lawmaker said during the Channels Television breakfast show monitored by POLITICS NIGERIA.
He added, “10 days later, they came back to the same area and entered into my constituency bordering some villages, and they had more than a seven-hour field operation going from house to house, room to room, collecting money, phones, cows, and any machine they deemed useful for their operations, and they left a message behind that they would soon be back.
“To fulfill their promise yesterday, we had intelligence that they were on their way coming. Around 10:30 in the morning, they reached their final destination – the Federal Government College, Birnin-Yauri.”
Recall that armed bandits raided the school on Thursday, abducting an undisclosed number of staff and students of the Government College.
POLITICS NIGERIA reported that aside the kidnap, the bandits gathered that the bandits shot security personnel during an exchange of gunfire.
The heavily armed bandits, who came on motorcycles, reportedly entered the town from the neighbouring Rijau forest in Niger State.
Meanwhile, on Friday, one of the Abducted students of has died but five others have been rescued by the joint taskforce component of the operation Hadari Daji.
The Thursday’s incident was the latest in the chains of attacks on various schools in the northern region of the country.
