- As Senate President hails “productive engagement of President Muhammadu Buhari, Governor Aminu Masari, others”
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, on Friday, said he was relieved at the news of the release of the hundreds of schoolboys kidnapped last week Friday at the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara in Katsina State.
Lawan said the news that all the kidnapped boys regained their freedom unharmed would delight their parents and all people of goodwill in Nigeria and across the world who have been horrified by the ordeal of the innocent children.
Meanwhile, Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State, has narrated how the schoolboys regained their freedom on Thursday night, claiming that no ransom was paid to secure their freedom.
In an interview with DWTV Hausa on Thursday night, Masari said government only negotiated before the boys were released, according to Within Nigeria.
He said the boys were at Tsafe, Zamfara State, and would be transported to Kankara on Friday.
“We did not pay ransom to the kidnappers, it was purely negotiation,” he said.
Explaning how the boys were released, Masari said: “One hour ago, Nigerian soldiers and government officials that were involved in the negotiation for the release of the kidnapped schoolboys have told us that the whole school children have been released, 344 of them.
“Those involved in the negotiation include my adviser, some top military and police operatives, members of Miyetti Allah; (they) were all involved in the negotiation”.
He insisted that the boys were abducted by local bandits and not Boko Haram, who had released a video showing the students in captivity.
“They are bandits who kidnapped the schoolboys, not Boko Haram,” he further said.
A statement by Ola Awoniyi, Special Adviser on Media to President of the Senate, said Lawan in particular rejoices with the parents who had been under tremendous emotional stress as they prayed for the safe return of their children.
“The past few days have been harrowing for the parents of the students, their teachers and all of us as a nation.
“The nightmare sadly reminds us of our country’s continued vulnerability to heartless crimes such as the kidnap of hundreds of schoolgirls in Chibok in 2014 and the Dapchi incident of 2018. The blemish of those earlier incidents is still on us as a country and we had hoped that the outrage that they sparked would mean such never happened again in Nigeria.
“This sad recurrence is, therefore, enough warning to us as a nation to deploy all the resources required for the security of our educational institutions, and indeed of everywhere else where our children gather, to protect them against cowardly attacks by primitive terrorists.
“I commend the prompt intervention and productive engagement of President Muhammadu Buhari, Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina state and others which resulted in the release of the children,” Lawan said.
The Senate President also praised the security forces and the intelligence community for what he described as “their coordinated efforts that brought this saga to early closure and urges them to continue in the same spirit and with the same approach in addressing other security issues across Nigeria.”
Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity had also on Thursday night, confirmed the release of the students kidnapped in their school last Friday.
He stated that Buhari hailed the partnership between Katsina and Zamfara States, as well as the military, in ensuring the release of the schoolboys.
