The Niger State Governor, Mohammed Umaru Bago, has stirred a major controversy over the attack on St Mary’s Catholic Missionary School in Papiri community, Agwara Local Government Area of the state, when he declared that no student was abducted by bandits.
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He said the students only ran into the bush after the bandits came to scare them with sporadic gunshots and are beginning to return home from their hideout, saying that security agents are combing the bush to discover more of the students.
The governor, who stated this when he granted an interview to TVC television news which was monitored in Minna on Saturday night, also disputed the figure of the abducted students released by the Chairman Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Most Rev. Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, stressing that it was too early to give any figure since the students are beginning to come back from their hideout.
He claimed that “the actual number is quite lower”.
According to him, “there was nothing like mass abduction, what happened was that the bandits came and were shooting sporadically into the air and the students were scared and escaped into the nearby bush.
“Right now about 60 of them have come out of their hiding. The security agents are combing the bush for more of them who are still hiding, so we appeal for calm,” he was quoted to have said.
He insisted that the government gave early warning to the school management of an imminent bandits’ attack but was ignored, stressing that “the management closed the school some time ago but was later reopened, querying that ‘who asked them to reopen the school’?”
This claim by the governor had earlier been totally debunked by the state Chairman of CAN who challenged the government to prove the allegation of early warning to the management as there was no communication from the government to that effect either written or verbal to the school.
The chairman described the allocation by the government as “a mere propaganda and afterthought”.
Meanwhile, the governor’s supposed on-the-spot assessment visit to the school to get first-hand information of the incident only terminated at the palace of the Emir of Borgu on Saturday.
While at the palace, the governor said during an interview with newsmen that “visiting the school will be an effort in futility because there is nobody in the school”.
Meanwhile, in a latest development, the Chairman of CAN has disclosed that no fewer than 50 of the abducted students have escaped to safety and have been reunited with their families.
The chairman, in a statement in Minna on Sunday by his media aide Dan Atori, said “we have received some good news as fifty (50) pupils escaped and have reunited with their parents”.
He pointed out that the pupils escaped between Friday and Saturday and have reunited with their parents as they could not return to the school after they escaped.
“We were able to ascertain this when we decided to contact and visit some parents,” he added.
While giving further details of the incident, the chairman pointed out further that in the primary section out of the total of 430 number of pupils in the school, 377 of them are boarders while the remaining 53 others are non-boarders.
He maintained, aside the 50 pupils that escaped and have returned home, 141 pupils were not taken away during the attack, pointing out that, “As it stands now, we have 236 pupils, another 3 children who belong to our staff, 14 secondary students, making a total 253 children including 12 members of staff that are still being held with the abductors.
“As much as we receive the return of these 50 children that escaped with some sigh of relief, I urge you all to continue in your prayers for the rescue and safe return of the remaining victims.
“I want to call on everyone to remain calm and prayerful as we will continue to actively collaborate with security operatives, community leaders, government and relevant authorities for the safe and quick return of all abductees,” the statement added.
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