One Student Killed, 150 Others Abducted In Niger Science College

*School staff, wives, children also taken

Armed bandits in the early hours Wednesday invaded Government Science Collage Kagara in Rafi, Niger State, abducting about 150 students from their hostels, sources say.

A student trying to escape during the invasion was shot dead on the spot by the bandits, said to be numbering about 150, who arrived at the school at about 2:15 am, according to one of the teachers who escaped the attack.

The bandits also took an unspecified number of teachers, their wives and children from the staff quarters behind the school.

The science school, which is in a state of disrepair, is situated about 500 meters from the local government secretariat along Kagara-Tegina road, with all its parameters fencing broken down.

Although details of the attack which lasted until about 3:00 am remains unclear as the police and the state government are yet to give official statements on the incident at the time of this report, it was learned that the victims were evacuated from the school in about four buses while others were marched into the bush.

This latest attack comes barely 24 hours after the District Head of Kusherki in the same Rafi local government area, Alhaji Masud Abubakar, was killed and his wife abducted when bandits invaded the community in their large numbers on Tuesday morning.

Also on Tuesday, nine vigilantes were killed after a two-hour gun battle with armed bandits in Munya local government area of the state.

Twenty-three people were abducted in the attack, with food items and other valuable looted by the bandits.