By Ayo Yusuf
A week after Nigerian troops managed to rescue 10 students taken from the Federal University Gusau, Zamfara State, armed men suspected to be bandits have invaded the student dormitories of the Federal University in Dutsinma (FUDMA), Katsina State, and abducted five female students.
TheNewDiplomat gathered that the incident happened in the early hours of Wednesday, at the students’ off-campus dormitories behind Mariamoh Ajiri School, close to Wednesday Market, in Dutsinma.
A source said the kidnapped students, two of whom are final year students of the university, hail from Kano and Nasarawa states.
There was no information concerning the situation of the victims as their captors had yet to contact their families or made any demands, at the time of filing this report.
It was also not clear if the bandits were the same group that perpetrated a similar atrocity in Zamfara State where female students at an off-campus hostel in the state capital were kidnapped.
So far, authorities of the Federal University, Dutsinma, have imposed a curfew and instructed all students to remain indoors from 10pm.
The head of the Public Relations Unit of the university, Habibu Umar Aminu, confirmed that the incident happened around 2 am on Wednesday, adding that efforts were ongoing to rescue the victims.
The police spokesperson in Katsina State, ASP Sadiq Aliyu Abubakar, said that one person suspected of giving information to the terrorists was arrested.
He stated that some people were also arrested for their suspected involvement in the abduction.
ASP Aliyu maintained that there were coordinated efforts to rescue the students unharmed.
It would be recalled that Nigerian troops recently rescued ten hostages among dozens of people kidnapped from Zamfara State after two days of fighting, military and community sources.
Gunmen had abducted more than 30 people including at least 24 female students, in a simultaneous raid at the university and some campuses just outside Gusau, the Zamfara State capital.
The raid was the first mass kidnapping at a college since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came to power in May, promising to tackle insecurity in Nigeria, where kidnap-for-ransom gangs have repeatedly hit schools.
