Updated: Gunmen kill Zaria poly student, abduct eight others, two lecturers

 

Gunmen last night attacked Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic, Zaria, Kaduna State, killing one student and abducting many others including lecturers.

Kaduna State Government on Friday confirmed two lecturers and eight students were kidnapped in the attack on the institution on Thursday night.

Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, also confirmed that one student was shot dead during the attack.

He said the bandits invaded the institution’s staff quarters in the campus, shooting sporadically and in the “process, two students were hit and sustained gunshot injuries’’.

“They were rushed to the hospital for medical attention. Sadly, one of the victims died early this (Friday) morning, while the other is receiving treatment,’’ he said.

The attackers reportedly invaded the main campus better known as “UPE”, located along an expressway just at the entrance of Zaria on Thursday night.

Zaria is about 45 minutes’ drive from Kaduna, the state capital.

Habila Nasai and Adamu Shika, both lecturers, were said to have been abducted.

A source told TheCable the gunmen who were in large numbers kept on shooting upon entering the school.

“The bandits invaded our school at about 11pm yesterday (Thursday) and abducted two academic staff and three students. The wife and two children of a staff were also kidnapped but Alhamdullah they were released this morning (Friday),” said the source.

“Two students were shot by the kidnappers, one of them, a HND II Statistics student, died this morning (Friday) while the other is receiving medical attention,” he added.

A statement issued by Publicity Secretary of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP), Aliyu Kofa, said the wife of another lecturer, Ahmed Abdu, and two of his children were kidnapped but released on Friday morning.

He did not provide details as to how they were released, adding that two students sustained gunshot wounds.

“One of them, Ahmed, from the department of statistics, died in the hospital from the injuries,” Kofa said in the statement.

He added, “While the other is still receiving medical attention at the clinic.”

The police in Kaduna have not spoken on the incident.

This is coming less than two weeks after 14 abducted students of Greenfield University who had spent 40 days in captivity were freed. The abductors had earlier killed five of the kidnapped students.

The students were abducted from the private university in Kaduna State on April 20 after bandits invaded their hostels.

The Kaduna State Government has adopted a policy of not negotiating with kidnappers, saying it encourages more kidnappings.

The latest development also comes after the abduction of students from the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation in Afaka in Kaduna and later released after ransom payment.