National chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, Uche Secondus, on Thursday led other members of the party to stage a peaceful protest in Abuja over the kidnap of some students in Katsina.
Secondus, joined hundreds of women and youths who were protesting the abduction of over 300 students of the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Kankara Local Government Area of Katsina State.
The protesting women and youths were demanding for the immediate and safe rescue of students abducted last week.
The protesters had stormed the Presidential campaign headquarters of the PDP in Maitama, Abuja, displaying various placards bearing such inscriptions as “Buhari has failed,” “Buhari, bring back our boys,” “Buhari values his cows more than human lives,” among others.
According to them, the time had come for the President to throw in the towel, saying his inability to secure the nation is now glaring for all to see.
Standing in solidarity with the protesting women and youths, Secondus noted that the situation in the country had become too dangerous for silence even as he called on the President to immediately bring the abducted students back and unhurt.
SCOOPER had reported earlier on Thursday that Boko Haram released a video purportedly showing the students abducted from a secondary school in Katsina last Friday.
Gunmen had invaded the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara area of the state, kidnaping over 300 students after a fierce gun battle with police officers.
The abduction took place some hours after President Muhammadu Buhari arrived in Daura, Katsina, for a week-long private visit.
The leader of the terror group, Abubakar Shekau, had earlier released a video claiming responsibility for the dastardly act.
The Defence Headquarters had discredited the claim, insisting the act was carried out by bandits.
But a fresh video made public on Thursday and posted by HumAngle shows teenagers believed to be Kankara schoolboys.
According to HumAngle, the six minutes and 30 seconds long video features speeches from Shekau and one of the schoolboys who looked distraught and bloodied.
Scores of other young boys could be seen behind him, all covered in dust and appearing to be within a forest area.
Shekau spoke at the end of the video saying he was happy with the operation.
He said many people thought he was lying when he claimed responsibility for the schoolboys’ abduction. Shekau said he would not add anything since sceptics could now see the boys by themselves.
“Even if I didn’t say anything, here are my people speaking and here are your boys speaking too,” he said.
Meanwhile, there is a report going round that Boko Haram recruited three local gangs in northwest Nigeria to kidnap hundreds of schoolboys on its behalf.
Security sources told AFP the operation was carried out on Boko Haram’s orders by a notorious local gangster called Awwalun Daudawa.
The 43-year-old worked in collaboration with Idi Minorti and Dankarami, two other crime chiefs with strong local followings, they said.
Criminal gangs, known as bandits, have terrorised communities in northwest Nigeria for years, and experts had recently warned of attempts by jihadists to forge an alliance with them.
Daudawa “was an armed robber and a cattle rustler before he turned to gun-running, bringing in weapons from Libya, where he had received training, and selling them to bandits,” said a security source.
“Over time, he forged an alliance with Boko Haram and became their gunrunner, taking weapons the group seizes from the Nigerian security forces in raids and ambushes and selling them to bandits for a cut.”
The source added: “Awwalun Daudawa was spotted in the forest in the Kankara area where he recently relocated and there were reports that he was planning something but it was not clear what it was.”
Another source with intimate knowledge of “bandit” activities in Katsina and Zamfara states said: “From available information, Awwalun Daudawa was ordered by Abubakar Shekau to kidnap the schoolboys and he enlisted the help of Idi Minorti and Dankarami.”
“After the children were taken, they went across the border into Zamfara state and split them among different gangs ‘for safekeeping’. And some of the gangs have been in touch with the authorities for the release of the boys.”
The attack occurred hundreds of kilometres (miles) from Boko Haram’s stronghold in northeast Nigeria, where it launched a brutal insurgency a decade ago.
