I’m not aware of abduction of Zamfara school girls, Army spokesman says

The Nigerian Army has said it is unaware that gunmen kidnapped 300 female students in Zamfara State Friday midnight.

Mohammed Yerima, the spokesperson for the Nigerian Army, said this in a telephone interview with The ICIR when asked to provide an update on the incident.

“I am not aware; you are just informing me of it,” Yerima told The ICIR. There are reports that unknown gunmen from Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe, in Talata-Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State, were kidnapped on Friday night.

According to the BBC, the female students were kidnapped at the boarding school by yet-to-be-identified gunmen.

The Punch also reported that a staff member of the school confirmed that the gunmen arrived in the school around 1 am on Friday with Hilux vehicles and motorcycles and forcefully evacuated the students.

According to the staff, the gunmen besieged the school pretending to be security personnel.

“When they came into the school, we thought they were security personnel but to our utmost fear and dismay, they started putting the girls into Hilux vehicles and motorcycles and then drove out of the school,” the newspaper quoted its source.

This is coming a few days after ‘bandits’ kidnapped about 100 Nigerian schoolboys from the all-boys Government Science College (GSC) in Kagara Town, Niger State.