Kidnappers free five of 73 students in Nigeria

Bandits have set free five students of Government Day Secondary School, Kaya in Maradun Local Council, Zamfara State.

About 73 of the students were kidnapped on Wednesday, according to the police.

Speaking to newsmen yesterday, a former councillor of Kaya Ward, Yahaya Kaya, said his younger brother’s daughter, Amina, was among the students set free.

According to him, the five students were taken back to their hometown, Kaya, around one o’clock yesterday morning.

The Zamfara House of Assembly has said security formations in the state often do not respond to distress calls from communities under attack by bandits. The lawmakers stated this on Wednesday at their plenary presided over by the deputy speaker, Musa Yankuzo.

IN another development, Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) has risen in defence of Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, and other southern governors that are against the activities of armed Fulani herdsmen in their states.

SOKAPU President, Jonathan Asake, in a statement yesterday, cautioned former Governor George Akume for criticising Ortom on the decision to defend the people of Benue against the attacks by the Fulani militia.

Asake, however, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately call all the Fulani militia waging war against other Nigerians to order, and allow sanity to reign.

He said: “SOKAPU is constrained to observe with total dismay the insensitivity and utter recklessness with which some highly-placed persons of the Middle Belt extraction continue to treat issues of insecurity affecting the region with levity.”

MEANWHILE, the Kaduna State Government has banned the transportation of livestock from the state to other states in the country.

The Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, stated that the decision was based on wide consultation and thorough security reviews.

Aruwan said the ban also prohibited the transportation of livestock into Kaduna from other states.
“The government also wishes to reiterate that the transportation of donkeys into the state is a criminal offence. Anyone found engaging in this will be prosecuted accordingly.

“The Kawo weekly market, which holds every Tuesday in Kaduna North, has been suspended with immediate effect,” he added.

The state government highlighted that the previous directives suspending weekly markets, and selling of petrol in jerry cans in Birnin Gwari, Giwa, Chikun, Igabi and Kajuru local councils, as well as banning the felling of trees for timber, firewood, charcoal and other commercial purposes were still in force.

“Citizens are hereby informed that all these directives will be vigorously enforced by security agencies,” Aruwan stated.