Army hands over 131 Kuriga schoolchildren to Kaduna govt, six hospitalised

Army hands over 131 Kuriga schoolchildren to Kaduna govt, six hospitalised

The Nigerian Army on Monday formally presented 131 out of the 137 rescued Kuriga schoolchildren to Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State.

The General Officer Commanding 1 Division of the Nigerian Army, Major General Mayirenso Saraso, while handing over the children, said six of the 137 rescued kids were receiving treatment at an Army medical facility.

He announced that one teacher who was also abducted, identified simply as Abubakar, died in captivity.

The 137 schoolchildren were abducted on March 7, 2024, from a school in Kuriga, Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

All the 131 schoolchildren were later on Monday taken in buses to the Women and Children Shelter in Kaduna for psycho-social therapy before handing them over to their parents.

The GOC said, “We successfully freed 137. But you will discover that six of them are not presently with us here. They are being attended to medically at our facility at Darlet Barracks, one male and five female students, who have been hospitalised.

“The governor visited them last night and he saw all the students, including those lying on hospital beds. So, those six, when eventually discharged, will join their 131 colleagues that are here physically to complete the figure of 137.”

Governor Sani thabked President Bola Tinubu and all heads of security agencies in the country for the successful rescue of the children.

He said, “I want to appreciate our children, who are here with us and are in high spirits.

“I want to make it very clear to all of us that from the very day that our children were unfortunately abducted from their school in the Kuriga community, the President has been with us from day one. He ensured that the security agencies would return our children home safely.”

He also said, “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 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.”

Army hands over 131 Kuriga schoolchildren to Kaduna govt, six hospitalised