The headmaster of Salihu Tanko Islamic School in Niger state, Abubakar Alhassan on Monday said 15 of the teachers abducted from the school have escaped from captivity.
The students, 156 in number were abducted from the school located in Tegina town in Rafi LGA of the state on May 30.
Alhassan who made the disclosure when the state governor, Abubakar Bello, met with parents of the abducted schoolchildren at the palace of Ahmed Gunna, Emir of Kagara.
According to him, the escaped teachers were in a military facility in Birnin Gwari, Kaduna state, where they would be handed over to the Niger government.
Speaking with the parents, the governor advised them to exercise patience as the government was exploring all avenues to ensure their safe rescue.
The governor also, while addressing a special squad of combined security personnel deployed to Rafi LGA, lamented the spate of insecurity in the state, adding that the time has come for his government to take decisive action “once and for all” to end banditry in the state.
“We will give you all the necessary support to enable you to implement all your security strategies to ensure the safe return of our abducted children and others, if any,” the governor was quoted to have said by Mary Noel-Berje, his chief press secretary in a statement.
“We have tried our possible best not to make them succeed in forcing us to change our normal lives; they started by displacing farmers from their farmlands, next they moved to burning farms.
“Then, they moved to kidnapping and forcing us to close our schools, now they have started attacking Islamic schools, only God knows what is next.”
The governor told the special squad that logistics had been provided for them and also promised that their allowances and other financial benefits would always be provided as and when due.
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