Zamfara Under Siege As Bandits Abduct Varsity Workers After Kidnapping Students

The New Diplomat
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By Ayo Yusuf

Barely one hour after kidnapping some students of the Federal University Gusau in Zamfara State, bandits returned to the college to abduct nine construction workers.

At the earlier hours of today, a large number of gunmen had stormed the students off campus residences in Gusau and kidnapped a yet unknown number of students, most of whom were females.

An indigene of Sabon Gida village where the incident took place, Abubakar Sani, told reporters that the bandits had invaded the area around 4:00am and proceeded to attack three students’ hostels.

He said, “Many of the kidnapped students were females, while other students were able to escape to the bush”.

The university authority and the state police command both declined to comment.

However, as the university community was reeling from that attack, another group of bandits arrived at the school on motorcycles to kidnap construction workers at the premises.

One of the workers who gave his name as Ibrahim Mohammed said immediately the bandits arrived, they broke into the building where the constitution workers sleep and whisked them away.

Mohammad explained that he was able to jump over the window and took to his heels.

He said, “When they broke into the building, they told us to come out and follow them.

“I was looking for a way to escape, then suddenly I jumped over the window and one of the bandits fired a shot but could not get me.”

All efforts to get comments from the university authorities again proved abortive.

However, one of the security officers of the institution who preferred anonymity, said he was not authorized to talk about the development.

He said, “Please bear with us. I am one of the security officers of this university.

“You know what happened with regard to the abduction of our students and the construction workers.”

Zamfara has witnessed a spate of kidnappings over the past five years as bandits take advantage of the gold mining in the state to attack citizens.

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