Updated: Zamfara imposes curfew as bandits abduct college students
Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle
Zamfara State Government has imposed a dusk to dawn curfew on the state following reports Wednesday of bandits abducting students of a secondary school in Maradun Local Government Area of the state.
Details of the incident are still sketchy but the armed men were said to have broken into the school on Wednesday morning.
Daily Trust quoted a resident of the community as saying the armed men stormed the school around 11:30am when the students were taking an examination.
“They blocked the doors to the classrooms and asked the students to step out.”
“Some of the students managed to escape the assault by jumping out of classrooms through the windows to hide inside nearby sorghum plantations,” the resident said.
The development is coming a few days after some students abducted in the state regained freedom.
A teacher in the affected school told the BBC Hausa in an interview that he and others managed to escape by running away under the cover of some farms near the school.
According to him, the bandits between the hours of 11 am and 12 pm, raided the school which had about 400 male and female students.
He said they came in their numbers on motorcycles wielding dangerous weapons and were seen all over the school premises.
Among those who escaped was a student who was shot on his thigh, and was later rushed to the hospital.
The teacher said the level 5 students were writing mock exams when the school was attacked.
A woman told the BBC Hausa in an interview that two of her children were among the students abducted and called on the authorities to come to their rescue.