The Kaduna State Government on Monday received the 137 rescued school children who were abducted by bandits from Kuriga Local Government Education Authority Primary School, Chikun Local Government Area on March 7.
The General Officer Commanding 1 Division, Nigerian Army, Major General Mayirenso Saraso, handed them over.
The GOC presented the rescued children to Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State at the Government House, Kaduna.
Saraso, who is also Commander, Operation WHIRL PUNCH, briefed the Governor on the successful rescue of the children.
The GOC, however, while presenting the freed students to Sani, said six out of the 137 have been hospitalised and were being attended to at an undisclosed Army Medical facility.
Saraso disclosed a one staff member of the school that made it 138 persons abducted, simply identified as Abubakar, died in captivity.
He said: “The school children were later taken to a women and children shelter within Kaduna city for psycho-social therapy pending onward handing over to their respective parents.
“We successfully freed 137, but you will discover that six of them are not presently with us here, they are being attended to medically in our facility at Darlet Barracks: one male, with five female students, who have been hospitalised.
“His Excellency visited them last night and he saw all the students, including those lying on hospital beds.
“So, those six when eventually discharged when they get better will join their 131 colleagues that are here physically present to complete the figure of 137.”
The GOC recalled that on March 7, some bandits invaded the LEA Primary School and the Government Secondary School, both co-located at Kuriga, “where they criminally abducted several pupils and students, including a staff member of one of the two schools”.
He extolled the efforts of President Bola Tinubu and the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, in the freeing of the abductees in the early hours of Sunday after spending about 16 days in captivity.
Saraso explained that the students were initially received and administered first aid at the Nigerian Army Troops Forward Operating Base, Dansadau in Zamfara State.
He added that in all, there were 137 children and one staff member, making 138 persons altogether, that were abducted from the co-located schools on the ill-fated day.
He said: “But unfortunately, the staff member, Mr. Abubakar, is not here with us today because he died while in captivity.
“Consequently, there are here at present a total of 137 students of the Government Secondary and LEA Primary Schools Kuriga in Chikun LGA of Kaduna State who were successfully rescued from captivity around Dansadau forest in Zamfara State and safely brought back to Kaduna.”
Saraso said the breakdown of the figure of the rescued children showed that there are 76 females and 61 males, making the total of 137 and the teacher that died while in captivity.
Sani, while responding, appreciated the efforts of Tinubu and all heads of security agencies in the country for the successful rescue of the hitherto embattled school children.
He said: “I want to appreciate our children who are here with us and are in high spirits.
“I want to make it very clear to all of us that from the very day that our children were unfortunately abducted from their school in Kuriga community, the President of the Republic of Nigeria has been with us from day one.
“He ensured that the security should return our children home safely.”
Sani also thanked Ribadu for his leadership, all the Service Chiefs and all the security agencies for their respective contributions and organised efforts.
He added: “That is why we are here today and happy to celebrate the release of our children.
“I want to appreciate the many Nigerians who prayed day and night for the release of the children, and today God has answered our prayers.
“I want to make one clarification here: when this incident happened, some of us have been very encouraging with the efforts of the security agencies.
“Because we are working with them closely, sharing a lot of intelligence reports and we have been giving information and that is why we are here today.
“I also want to caution insecurity merchants and conflict merchants in Nigeria to be cautious with their utterances.
“This is because before the release of our children, a lot of people have been coming with a lot of permutations on how these children were released or what happened.”
Sani said the important thing for the state and the country was that the children were now free.
He said: “This is more important.
“As a government, it is to protect the lives and property of our citizens.
“And under my government, Kaduna State will continue to prioritise our security because security is the number one agenda of our government.
“We should not prioritise the issue of insecurity in Nigeria.
“It is not good to undermine the efforts of security agencies in Nigeria.”
The governor also cautioned the media and some elements in the society about permutations of the school children.
Sani said: “In my own opinion, it is just to celebrate their release.
“And the families of these children are already happy and they are celebrating.
“We are all happy because we had 16 days of sleepless nights, but today we are happy the children are back.
“I want to emphasise that we will continue to make security efforts so that all our local government areas and communities are saved.”
