By Valentine Amanze, Online Editor
Two lucky students of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, Usama Aminu and Muhammed Abubakar, have said that self-determination was the tonic that aided their escape when the armed bandits that attacked their school Friday night.
They also confirmed that the bandits escaped with no fewer than 300 schoolboys.
On his ordeal, Aminu narrated that the gunmen arrived late Friday night and started shooting their guns before marching them out of their hostels.
He said, “When I decided to run, they brought a knife to slaughter me but I ran away quickly.
“At first, we thought the commotion was from soldiers trying to protect us. But the attackers, armed with AK-47 assault rifles, were already in the building, threatening groups who tried to leave their dormitories.
“They said they would kill whoever was trying to escape then I began to run, climbing one rock to another through a forest.”
Also, Abubakar, 15, was another pupil, who got away, trekking through farmland and a forest in the dark.
He said that he was among 72 boys who had reached safety in the village of Kaikaibise, where he ended up.
“The bandits called us back. They told us not to run. We started to walk back to them, but as we did, we saw more people coming towards the dormitory,” he told Reuters.
“So I and others ran again. We jumped over the fence and ran through a forest to the nearest village.”
Abubakar said that he saw a number of boys being rounded up before they were marched out of the school, which has around 800 students. Seven of his friends were missing, he said.
As he was reunited with his mother, who sells firewood for a living, he said: “I never thought I would see my parents again.”
Many details of the raid and its aftermath remain unknown.
Police said on Friday they exchanged fire with the attackers, allowing some students to run for safety.
A spokesman for Katsina State said 17 more students had been found on Monday, leaving about 320 students missing.
The president’s office said on Monday that the government was in contact with the armed men and was negotiating the release of the boys after security agencies had located them.
“We are making progress and the outlook is positive,” Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari, told reporters after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari, who was visiting his home state.
The governor said that the president was fully committed to the rescue of the schoolchildren, after he had been criticised in Nigerians for not visiting the school.
It is still not clear who the gunmen were and officials do not yet know the motive of the attack. However, Boko Haram leadership has claimed responsibility, which many Nigerians doubt.