Kankara schoolboys: Garba Shehu apologises for giving wrong figure

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Mallam Garba Shehu, has tendered an apology for saying only 10 schoolboys were kidnapped by bandits while reacting to the abduction of more than 300 students of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, last week.

Shehu, during an interview granted the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), had said only 10 students of the school were as of then could not be accounted for.

However, the President’s media aide on Friday said he regretted the development, blaming it on inaccurate briefing from supposedly informed sources and asked for forgiveness.

He said, “In doing this job, we are faced with as many risks as a journalist faces in reporting issues.

“When you are not physically present at an event, what you do is to rely on accounts rendered by others who happen to be there.

“We can be misled as reporters, as it happened with the conflicting numbers we gave of the abducted students of the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara who have happily all been returned to their families.

“What you do all the time before you appear for an interview, you do your research on the given subject. You make calls so that you are yourself, informed. What then happens when they gave you the incorrect facts?

“There was absolutely nothing to suggest that the number of 10 as the students taken by the kidnappers was given to us after a high level briefing by people who should ideally know.

“But I went beyond that to cross-check with other authorities and the confirmation was given as ten. As it turned out, more than 300 were taken as can be seen from the returnees.

“I feel sorry that I was misled into hurting grieving parents. I absolutely have no reason to underplay the seriousness of the situation we were dealing with. As a father, I would have felt the same way about this misrepresentation as did the aggrieved parents. Sorry about that.”

The kidnapped students regained their freedom on Thursday afternoon and paid a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari Friday afternoon at his Daura Katsina State, country home, before he returned to the State House, Abuja.