Janet Ogundepo speaks to some of the released pupils abducted by bandits on their traumatic experiences
Three months after Agnes was kidnapped, she still lives in fear of being re-kidnapped. Her widowed mother identified only as Mrs Joy, had to endorse her desire to go to a state in the South-West in care of a mission group in the hope that she would overcome her fears.
Joy explained that her daughter was taken to a hospital after she was released by bandits who kidnapped her and others from a school in Kaduna State. She added that though she received counselling to overcome her fears, she always clung to her while asleep, afraid that the kidnappers would come back for her.
Agnes is a first-year Senior Secondary School student of Bethel Baptist High School, Kaduna and was abducted by bandits in the early hours of July 5, 2021. She still wants to return to school to fulfil her desire to become a lawyer.
Joy, who is still seeking a safer place where her daughter can resume school, stated, “Maybe she will not return to the school. I am searching for a place outside Kaduna where she can continue her education.’’
Stanley, another released student of Bethel Baptist School, who though fully recovered from the wounds he sustained in the kidnapper’s den, said the trauma of being kidnapped still plagued him as he now jumps at the sound of any loud noise.
He, however, said he had put the incident behind him and was ready to resume school to fulfil his dream of becoming a laboratory scientist.
He said, “Sometimes, when I remember the incident and my ordeal at the hands of the kidnappers, it makes me afraid of loud sounds due to the gunshots. But I am not scared to go back to school. I would only be scared if I knew I would be going back to the school where I was kidnapped.’’
Another pupil, Theresa, was asleep in her dormitory at Bethel Baptist High school when it was invaded by bandits on July 5. After being in captivity for 49 days, Theresa was released alongside some of her colleagues to their parents.
She desired to become a lawyer and like her colleagues, wanted to return to school but not to her former school.
She said, “I still want to go back to school but I don’t want to return to my former school. I enjoy going to school but I’m scared of resuming at the school where I was kidnapped.”
Also, a pupil, 13-year-old Salisu Musa, together with his siblings and other students were kidnapped from Salihu Tanko Islamiyya School, Tegina in Niger State on May 30, 2021.
Though beaten once at the kidnapper’s den, fed with only unsalted rice and left to fetch water from the river or water puddle whenever it rained, the Musas were ready to return to where they were kidnapped to resume schooling.
Ahmad told our correspondent, “I still want to return to school, even if it is the same school because I believe whatever happens comes from God.”
His sibling, 10-year-old Ahmad’s right arm was dislocated before the invasion of bandits to his school. Yet, the bandits did not spare him; he was marched outside along with his siblings and mates through the forest to the bandit’s hideout.
Regardless, Ahmad, whose arm is now healed, stated that, “I will still like to go back to school to learn and become a better person. I love going to school.”
For Rabiu, kidnapped alongside his brothers, Ahmad and Salisu, he is ready to return to school whenever the directive for resumption is made. He noted, “I am not afraid of going back to my school.’’
Asked what they hoped to become when they grew up, the Musas said they desired to join the different arms of the Nigerian military to fight bandits. They spoke through an interpreter who is one of their family members.
The identities of the victims have been protected for security reasons.
Booming kidnap-for-ransom business
Kidnapping of pupils and students have become a lucrative business in Nigeria with bandits invading school at will and ordering helpless parents of their victims in the manner of ransom payments and other items to include. The situation has assumed a worrisome dimension in the North and cases have been recorded in Katsina, Niger, Zamfara, Kebbi, including Kaduna, which is gradually becoming the kidnapping headquarters.
Abductions have further worsened the school enrolment in Nigeria which has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world. The UNICEF records that one in every five out-of-school children in the world is in Nigeria.
On May 30, 2021, armed bandits attacked the Salihu Tanko Islamiyya School, Tegina, Niger State and kidnapped over 100 students in the school, including a three-year-old. The pupils were released on August 26, 2021, after spending 88 days in the kidnapper’s den and a ransom of N70m was paid and six motorcycles were collected.
Also on July 5, 2021, around 2am, bandits posing as soldiers invaded and kidnapped 121 students of the Bethel Baptist High School, Kaduna, from their school hostel.
The Greenfield University, Kaduna State, was invaded on April 20, 2021, by bandits and about 23 students including a staff member were kidnapped. The bandits initially demanded N800m but later reduced it to N100 and 10 motorcycles. They thereafter asked the parents to pay N10m each to claim their children.
The National Security Summit had noted in its report that $2.4m was paid to secure the release of schoolchildren in five separate mass kidnapping incidents in the North-West since November 2020. The report is a compilation of the conclusion of a National Security Summit organised by the House of Representatives between May 26 and 29, 2021. Amid it all states governments, especially the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, had ruled out either ransom payment or negotiation with bandits and those who earlier trod the path had seen futility in the exercise. One of them is the Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari.
Victims’ plights at the hand of bandits
Posing as soldiers on a rescue mission, about 120 students of Bethel Baptist High School, Kaduna, including a matron were led on foot through the forest to their den by bandits.
Stanley, who looked sideways as he spoke recalled the day vividly.
He narrated, “We were sleeping around midnight then we started hearing gunshots. They came inside the school through the gate. They stood in front of our hostel and asked us to come out and we did. They told us they were soldiers coming to protect us and take us to a safe place away from kidnappers that were coming, whereas they were the kidnappers. They led us out of the school through a hole they dug in the school fence. We all went through the fence and into the bush and walked for about 17 hours inside the bush until we got to where they eventually kept us.”
For Theresa, she remembered that she was asleep in the hostel when the sound of gunshots pierced rudely into the stillness of the night, boorishly waking her and other hostel mates from their sleep.
They were locked in wonderment when an order that they should put on their clothes and move out of the hostel roused them from sleep.
She said, “We were sleeping when they entered the hostel. They broke the door, asked us to put on our clothes and move out. When we were leaving, they broke the wall. When we got there (the bandits hideout), they just asked us to sit down because we arrived there in the evening. It was almost dark. They asked us to lie on the ground.”
The abducted pupils of Salihu Tanko Islamiyya School recollected that they were in class during bandits’ invasion of the school on May 20, 2021.
Salisu stated, “I was in the class when the kidnappers came to meet us there. I was scared to death.”
Also, Rabiu noted that when the bandits arrived at the school, he was initially not afraid because he did not understand what was going on.
But when we got to the kidnapper’s den at night, I began to cry because I wanted to see my parents.’’
Ahmad, who said the incident appeared like a familiar movie, told our correspondent, “I knew that they were kidnappers when I saw them with guns because I had seen something like that in movies. I was afraid when I saw them.”
There were reports of improper feeding and lack of potable water which the pupils suffered in the bandits’ den. We earlier reported that the abductors of Bethel Baptist School requested parents to send food items to their children alongside ransom. It was the same with the kidnappers of the Salihu Tanko Islamiyya School pupils who requested parents of their victims to send clothes because their children were “almost naked.”
Both freed pupils of Bethel and Tegina schools children who spoke to our correspondent said that they were fed only white rice throughout their period of kidnap and had to get water to drink from the river or pond when it rained.
Corroborating the claim, Stanley noted, “We were usually given food twice in a day, sometimes once and it was always white rice without stew and salt. We got water from the river or if it rained or from the pool.”
Theresa also stated that they were given only salted white rice and they fetched water to drink from the river. After spending 49 days in the bandits’ den, she said she was filled with a mixed feeling of happiness and sadness when she was released. “I was happy because I was leaving the bandits but I was sad because some are still there. I have about three female classmates who are still there. I don’t know about the males who are still with them because we were separated. There was also no time that they tried to molest any of us as of the time I was held with others,’’ Theresa said.
On his part, Rabiu said they were not given water but they had an option to drink a river, adding that they gave them food but it was ordinary white rice without salt, seasoning or palm oil.
Left with the choice of either going hungry or eating a portion of tasteless food, Ahmad said, “The food was tasteless but we had to eat it like that.”
One of the Bethel students who spoke on condition of anonymity said whenever they wanted to defecate, they got permission from the bandits who directed them to a bush. The pupil stated, “There is a shed they kept us whenever a helicopter was sighted near their hideout in the afternoon. In the evening, we go to a tent to sleep.”
Some of the Bethel pupils who were earlier released told our correspondent on condition of anonymity that they were severely beaten every time one of them misbehaved while the Tegina pupils said they were beaten once with a cable.
According to Rabiu, “I was beaten once with a cable because soldiers killed one of the bandits, so they took out their anger on us.”
Parents’ joyful moments
Stanley’s father, Mr Daniel stated that he was excited to see his son again, adding that, “I was excited. It was the happiest moment of my life and I will never wish that anybody should find themselves in that situation.”
Also, the Musas’ elder brother who is a teacher, Mallam Sulaimon, said he escaped being kidnapped alongside his other siblings because he had yet to leave for the school when he got a call that the school had been invaded by bandits.
He recalled that the day he saw the released pupils at the Government House he wept.
Sulaimon said, “The first day I saw them when they were released at the Government House, they were not looking good and I started crying. They had mosquito bites on them and have since been taken to a hospital. I feel bad and angry about this issue. Government should please intervene.’’
Speaking further, Mr Daniel called on the government to promptly address the situation. He added, “All we are saying is that the government should sit up and address the situation. The government has not been taking any responsibility. I did everything myself. Some of the kidnapped children have yet to be released. I don’t think the government is ready to do anything.”
Pleas for increased security
The Head Teacher, Salihu Tanko Islamiyya, Abubakar Alhassan, told our correspondent that the school had resumed, disclosing that the released pupils had no uniform at the moment.
He said, “We resumed on September 26 and the released pupils wore mufti because the school management does not have money to buy uniforms for the pupils and their parents don’t even have money to buy school uniforms for them. Don’t forget that they were kidnapped with their uniforms on them. We will allow them to come to the school like that until their parents can afford to buy uniforms because we want to encourage them to come to school for them to learn.’’
Alhassan added that some parents of the kidnapped pupils were still traumatised about the incident and reluctant to allow their children to resume school.
Asked about security measures put in place to curb a recurrence, the headteacher said security agents were informed of their resumption and promised to beef up security around the area.
He added, “Already the morning session, which is when we conduct western education classes, has resumed so that should reduce the fear in the pupils and reassure them that they can come to the school in the evening.’’
He also sought assistance from the government to repair some parts of the school destroyed by bandits and for provision of uniforms for the resuming schoolchildren.
Also, the Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria, Kaduna State chapter, Joseph Hayab, said that the Bethel School pupils in the junior secondary classes had taken their final external examinations, stating that those in senior classes had yet to do so.
Hayab said, “The JSS students took their exams on the premises of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Kaduna State Chapter. When they resumed, I gave them my office in the CAN secretariat for preparatory lectures. We have a 32 room guesthouse that we are putting in order so the remaining school can use them. We are an open and running school. We have only one challenge, those who are supposed to take the National Examinations Council and West African Examinations Council exams could not do so because not all of them are back and the exams are rounding off. Those in JSS all returned and they had taken the final JSCE exams.”
He also urged the released pupils of Bethel School to return to the school, assuring their parents that the police headquarters in the state was a few metres from the new facility in use.
He added, “The other place is not secure enough for now for them to return to school and the CAN secretariat is just about 800 metres from the state police headquarters in Kaduna. We feel, for now, they should school there. We arranged a meeting with the parents in the CAN secretariat and all the parents were there. I addressed them and spoke to them on the need to maintain the school. It is natural, seeing what they have gone through for them to feel the place is not secure and not wanting to come back. But when they saw the facility, they could see that we offered them something better than what we had before.
“But we cannot guarantee 100 per cent that everybody will come back but we will continue to do the best that we can. Our school will continue, we have been here since 1981 and we have made a name. This unfortunate incident only opened our eyes to ways we can beef up security challenges in the school.”
UN, others condemn attacks on schools
The United Nations in commemorating the 2021 ‘International Day to Protect Education from Attack,’ stated that in the last academic year, 1.3 million Nigerian children had been impacted by attacks or abductions at schools.
The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Mr Edward Dallon, in a statement, condemned the attack, stating that disruption in learning activities impacted the “human capital development” and the “recovery period is always tortuous and longer than the length of the initial disruption.”
SBMIntel, a geopolitical intelligence platform in Nigeria, reported that about 1,409 students had been kidnapped from their schools between March 2020 and August 2021. The report, uploaded on the group’s website further listed Katsina, Zamfara, Niger, Kaduna and Kebbi as the most affected states with 440, 419, 236, 206, 105 persons kidnapped respectively.
Also, the National Coordinator, Concerned Parents and Educators Network, Mrs Kemi Koleowo, decried the state of education and security situation in the northern region of the country, stating that every Nigerian had the right to be educated and protected.
She, however, commended the courage of the children to return to school.
She said, “I commend the boldness and the effrontery of the students who want to go back to school despite the challenges they are facing in terms of uncertainty when it comes to the issue of security. I give kudos to them because no parent would want their children to go through that kind of situation again after they had been kidnapped.’’
Koleowo urged the government to put security measures in place to prevent a recurrence.
Besides, some security experts have urged the state government and residents of states affected by kidnappings to engage the Nigerian Legion Corps of Commissionaires and local vigilantes as further measures to protect the schools and community from bandits.
The Director-General, International Institute of Professional Security, Dr Tony Ofoyetan, said “There are two approaches that I think the school can adopt. The first is community involvement. The known government security agencies need to involve the local vigilantes because their children attend the schools. If the traditional rulers are involved, outside the school, there will be specific security measures at strategic places manned by the vigilantes, the youth, the Legion and others.
“Another approach is that the Nigerian Legion Corps of Commissionaires is a section of the Nigerian Army. One of their cardinal corps responsibilities is school security. Unfortunately, whether out of politics or whatever, the government has not been able to harness that and they are everywhere in Nigeria. We expect that the government should spur them into their primary responsibility of school security. They work hand-in-hand with the Nigerian military because they are an offshoot of the Nigerian military. The communities can also spur the government to make sure that they deploy some members of the Nigerian Legion. I am sure they can at least deploy five in each school. They are that much in the country.”
Ofoyetan also urged parents to be actively involved in ensuring that their communities and where their children’s schools are located have adequate security agencies.
He added that schools should ensure that their “security architecture” was adequate.
He added, “The perimeter wall of the schools should be built if they don’t have one. If they do, are they good enough? How good are the gating and fencing systems? They should also look at the quality of access control in each school, which simply means that if you have no reason to be in the school, you should not be allowed access to the school.
“Also, in 100 metres by the right and left of every school, there should be a major barrier that will inhibit speedy movement and there should also be the illumination of all the schools.”
He further advised the government and the military to engage in “proactive government measures wherein they can identify their (bandits) hideouts in all the bushes and forests and put them perpetually on the run.”
Another security expert, Mr Oladele Fajana, described the constant kidnapping of pupils as negligence on the part of the government.
Fajana said, “I see the constant kidnap of pupils in those areas as government negligence. A mistake can be made once or twice but when it is repeated, it is no longer a mistake. It is negligence. I blame the government of those areas for the attack on those places because it looks as if they (the bandits) are free to do whatever they want to. The government within its limited capacity is supposed to provide security to those schools. They are to ensure adequate security in those schools that have been attacked to encourage parents to allow their children return to school.”
He, however, advised the government to engage vigilantes to serve as a watch and intelligence for their communities.
He said, “The police can have inadequate men on the ground but at the same time, community policing can be introduced to assist in providing security to their states. I advise the government of those states to have their internal security apparatus, though they might not carry guns they can be there to serve as a watch to the schools and in case of an attack, they can call for police reinforcement. They should not just leave those schools at the mercy of kidnapping and banditry attacks.”
Credit: Punch
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