The military authorities on Monday, March 25, handed over 131 of the rescued 137 Kuriga schoolchildren to the Kaduna state government, saying that the remaining six, including a male and five female students, were still receiving treatment at a military medical facility in Kaduna.
The General Commanding Officer (GOC), 1 Division Nigerian Army, Major General, Mayirenso Saraso, who handed over the children to Governor Uba Sani said no ransom was paid.
He, however, pointed out that both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches were applied in the rescue of the schoolchildren.
The 131 pupils and students who arrived at Sir Kashim Ibrahim (Government) House at about 2:07pn on Monday in three Coaster and two 14-seater Hiace buses appeared medically stable, except for a few of them who were seen limping, with apparent leg injuries.
They were clad in new dresses and Styrofoam Crocs shoes provided by their authorities.
Presenting the rescued children to Governor Uba Sani, the GOC said, the security forces successfully rescued 137, but 131 were brought to the Government House, as they were still receiving treatment at the 1 Division medical facility.
According to the GOC, “We successfully freed 137, but you will discover that 6 of them are not presently with us here, they are being attended to medically in our facility at Darlet Barracks, one male with five female students who have been hospitalized.
“His Excellency visited them last night and he saw all the students including those lying on hospital beds. So those six when eventually discharged when they get better will join their 131 colleagues that are here physically present to complete the figure of 137.”
Speaking further on the rescue mission, the GOC said: “Through the sustained and coordinated application of both kinetic and non-kinetic efforts by the security agencies under the strategic guidance of the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR through the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA). The abducted Kuriga school children in the early hours of yesterday Sunday 24th March 2024, were safely rescued after spending about 16 days in captivity.
“Recall that on Thursday, 7th March 2024, some Violent Extremists and Insurgents (VE/I) infamously called armed bandits invaded the LEA Primary School and the Government Secondary School both co-located at Kuriga, in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, where they criminally abducted several pupils and students including a staff member of one of the two schools.
“The students were initially received and administered first aid at the Nigerian Army Troops Forward Operating Base Dansadau, in Zamfara State before being served refreshments and subsequently conveyed from there under escort to Kaduna this morning/afternoon.
“In all, there were 137 children and one staff member making 138 persons altogether that were abducted from the co-located schools on the ill-fated day. But unfortunately, the staff member, Mr Abubakar is not here with us today because he died while in captivity.
“Consequently, there are here at present, a total of 137 students of the Govt Secondary and LEA Primary Schools Kuriga in Chikun LGA of Kaduna State who were successfully rescued from captivity around Dansadau Forest in Zamfara State and safely brought back to Kaduna.
“The breakdown of the figure of the rescued children shows that there are 76 Females and 61 Males making the total of 137 altogether (less the teacher that died while in captivity).
“Finally, on behalf of the entire rescue team, I wish to sincerely thank and acknowledge the support and strategic guidance of Mr President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR through the Honourable Ministers of Defence, NSA, the CDS and the Service Chiefs/Heads of other Security and Law Enforcement Agencies, and of course, not forgetting the Government and good people of Kaduna State as well as the General Officer Commanding 8 Division of the Nigerian Army who jointly and severally contributed in one way or the other towards the successful rescue efforts and safe return of the Kuriga School Children (without payment of ransom),” the GOC said.
Meanwhile, Governor Uba Sani while receiving the children frowned at what it called propaganda trailing the freedom of the school children over payment or non-payment of ransom in the rescue efforts.
The governor said, what is more, important was that the abducted school children have regained their freedom, which is the joy of the Kaduna state government.
According to the governor, “I want to make one clarification here; when this incident happened, some of us have been very encouraging with the efforts of the security agencies because we are working with them closely, sharing a lot of intelligence reports and we have been giving information and that is why we are here today.
“I also want to caution insecurity merchants and conflict merchants in Nigeria to be cautious with their utterances because, before the release of our children, a lot of people have been coming with a lot of permutations about how these children were released, and what happened.
“The important thing for us in Kaduna is that the children are here with us. This is more important. As a Government, it is to protect the life and property of our citizens. And under my government, Kaduna State will continue to prioritise our security because security is the number one agenda of our government.
“We should not prioritise the issue of insecurity in Nigeria. It is not good to undermine the efforts of security agencies in Nigeria. I want to caution the media and some elements in society about the permutation of the school children, in my own opinion it is just to celebrate their release. And the families of these children are already happy and they are celebrating.
“We are all happy because we had 16 days of sleepless nights, but today we are happy the children are back and I want to emphasise that we will continue to make security efforts so that all our local government areas and communities are saved,” the Governor said.
Meanwhile, the school children who were scheduled to be reunited with their parents during a dinner on Monday night would be taken to Kaduna State Women and Children Centre for Psycho-social therapy before they would be taken back to Kuriga at a later date.
Earlier on Sunday night when Governor Sani visited the children at the Military Hospital, of the rescued secondary school students, Aisha confirmed to the Governor that, all of them who were kidnapped were rescued.
She also said that none of them was molested by their abductors, as the bandits had zero tolerance against molestation.
According to her, “We have returned completely, nobody is missing. We were 138, but, 137 of us came back. The one who didn’t come back was our teacher who died in captivity.
“We were not molested, they (bandits) don’t touch women. They even warned themselves not to molest any female; they said whoever molests any female is not forgiven and God will judge the person,” she said.
Asked about her future ambition, Aisha said, “I want to study medicine and become a Medical Doctor.”
Another female student, (name unknown) told Governor Sani that, she wanted to become a soldier, so that, she could help rid Nigeria of insecurity.
Meanwhile, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has called for proactive measures against future occurrence of such kidnappings.
A statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the Forum, Prof. Tukur Muhammad-Baba said, “It is with warm hearts full of relief and gratitude that the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) received news about the release of the students abducted from schools at Kuriga, Kaduna State, Tsangaya school children abducted in Gada Local Government Area, Sokoto State, and some of the long-held students of Federal University Gusau (FUGUS).
“Details of the process that led to the release of the students are unavailable, understandably for security reasons. Without prejudice, however, for ACF the development hopefully signals a new dawn in anti-terrorism measures being applied by the government.
“Specific to Kuriga, the rescue of the innocent kids is highly commendable. As alluded to in the statement from His Excellency Senator Uba Sani, the operation was made possible by a needed collaboration between various stakeholders including the security forces, the Kaduna State Government (KDSG) and locals.
“This is as should be, as many have indeed been stridently calling for such an approach to stamping out for good, the menace of terrorism and banditry that as existential threats to communities in Nigeria.
“All who contributed to seeing the feat deserve much appreciation and gratitude from all Nigerians. ACF joins all to extend kudos to the Federal Government and its security agencies, HE Senator Sani and KDSG, members of the local communities involved and indeed any and everyone that directly and indirectly contributed to this happy denouement to the horrific nightmare scenario.
“ACF also rejoices with the student, their parents and guardians. Going forward, ACF calls for strengthening this new anti-terrorism multi-stakeholder, multi-pronged strategy, involving all those with direct and indirect responsibilities for securing peoples and communities and, ultimately, Nigeria.
“Efforts should be intensified to have all remaining captives, everywhere and anywhere released. For Kuriga, this is vital, because the number of victims released is at variance with earlier figures of abductees as indeed reflected in various news reports.
“The adoption of simple but effective community-based measures, including simple or user-friendly gadgets, incorporating solid intelligence gathering and processing, for early warning, early response strategy to secure all vulnerable communities and facilities.”
