By our reporter| The 333 school boys abducted by heavily armed bandits last Friday from Government Secondary School Karanka in Katsina State were still with the bandits and unharmed.
The Defence Headquarters, which made the disclosure on Wednesday, said that the military had taken all the necessary briefs from other security agencies and the Katsina State government on the present condition of the abducted students.
According to the Coordinator, Defence Media Operation, Maj. Gen. John Enenche, the military, however, was not part of the team negotiating with bandits and would not be.
Eneche who revealed that nobody is dead among the children, said the armed forces were reviewing strategies to ensure their safe returns to their parents, noting that the military would continue its ongoing kinetic operations.
Eneche said, “Nobody is dead; we have not received anything that anybody is dead from the information that we have on the situation and then, the troops are on guard as it were.
“They have started patrolling the whole of that area which I will not give you the specifics to ensure that they are intact and that we rescue them alive, whichever way.”
The DHQ spokesman further stressed that negotiation with terrorists, bandits, or criminal gangs was not part of the rule of engagement of the military, assuring that the security forces would rescue the schoolboys from their abductors soon.
“I don’t know from history where the military or the armed forces go into negotiations when it comes to ransom and I don’t have any record.
“Nothing is connecting the armed forces with negotiation”, he said.
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