By Enyichukwu Enemanna
At least six of 24 kidnapped students of the Federal University Gusau, Zamfara State, North West Nigeria, have been rescued by the military, just hours after they were whisked away by bandits in the early hours of Friday.
This was disclosed by a top military source close to the Commander of 1 Brigade Nigerian Army, Gusau.
An undisclosed number of bandits had invaded the Sabon-Gida community of Bungudu Local Government Area where the students, mostly women were abducted.
According to the source, the Brigade Commander, Brigadier General Sani Ahmed is at the moment leading an operation with other security agencies in the forest along Tsafe Local Government Area (LGA) of the state to secure the freedom of the abducted students.
Several bandits were neutralised during the ongoing operation with some weapons recovered, the source revealed.
According to a Channels TV report, a student of the school, who pleaded anonymity had revealed that over 24 schoolmates were abducted during the attack, a claim confirmed by a resident of Sabon-Gida identified as Nazeer Sabon-Gida who said the gunmen invaded the community around 3 am and started shooting indiscriminately.
According to him, three students’ hostels were attacked and all the students in the hostels were taken away by the bandits.
Zamfara has in the last years become a hotbed for attacks by bandits and some displaced members of the ISWAP-linked Boko Haram terror group from North East.
Despite repeated vows by security forces to significantly decimate the groups, they still constitute a threat to soft targets, with schoolgirls repeatedly kidnapped in droves.
