The Niger State Governor, Mohammed Bago has said that no student was abducted by bandits at St Mary’s Catholic Missionary School in Papiri community, Agwara Local Government Area of the state.
TheHintsNews reported that the terrorists had on Friday stormed the school where students and teachers numbering about 315 were abducted.
However, the governor, during an interview on TVC on Saturday night, disputed the figure of the abducted students released by the Chairman Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Bulus Yohanna.
The governor was of the option that it was too early to give any figure since the students are beginning to come back from their hideout.
Bago insisted that the students only ran into the bush after the bandits came to scare them with sporadic gunshots and are beginning to return home from their hideout, saying that security agents are combing the bush to discover more of the students.
He stated: “The actual number is quite lower. There was nothing like mass abduction, what happened was that the bandits came and were shooting sporadically into the air and the students were scared and escaped into the nearby bush.
“Right now about 60 of them have come out of their hiding. The security agents are combing the bush for more of them who are still hiding, so we appeal for calm. “
Bago revealed that the government gave early warning to the school management of an imminent bandits’ attack but was ignored, adding that the management closed the school some time ago but was later reopened, querying that “who asked them to reopen the school’?”
TheHintsNews reports that the claim by the governor had earlier been totally debunked by the state Chairman of CAN who challenged the government to prove the allegation of early warning to the school management.
The Christian body maintained that there was no communication from the government to that effect either written or verbal to the school.
The chairman described the allocation by the government as “a mere propaganda and afterthought”.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of CAN has revealed that 50 of the abducted students have escaped from their abductors and have been reunited with their families.
The chairman in a statement issued Sunday by his media aide, Dan Atori, said “we have received some good news as 50 pupils escaped and have reunited with their parents”.
He explained that the pupils escaped between Friday and Saturday and have reunited with their parents as they could not return to the school after they escaped.
“We were able to ascertain this when we decided to contact and visit some parents,” he added.