Attacks by armed gangs, often called bandits, have intensified across northwest Nigeria in recent years. Four school kidnappings since December have sparked outrage across the country.
About 39 students, including a pregnant woman, are still missing from Thursday’s kidnapping of the Federal College of Forest Mechanization in northwest Nigeria.
Samuel Aruwan, Kaduna state’s internal security and internal affairs commissioner, said police, the army and others had repelled attacks on another school and a local government office near Kaduna airport.
“The Kaduna state government extends its unequivocal solidarity to the military, the police, the State Service Department and other security agencies, whose swift intervention has prevented the bandits from kidnapping more people,” said Aruwan.
All 307 students at the Ikara Government High School of Science have been detected, Aruwan said, adding that the army and air force also repelled an attack on senior staff housing in the village of Ifira in the local government area of Igabi.
In that video, a college student said his captors wanted a bailout of 500 million naira ($ 1.3 million).
“As a government, our focus is on recovering our missing students and preventing further episodes of kidnapping in schools,” said Aruwan.
President Muhammadu Buhari, speaking in a video message posted on Twitter on Sunday, ordered states to address security issues at all levels and said military service heads would quickly address broader security issues.
“We will be very hard on criminals,” he said, adding that “confidence in governance must be restored in the next six weeks.”