One of the 25 schoolgirls taken from Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State, has managed to escape from her captors.
The school principal, Musa Magaji, informed The Associated Press on Tuesday.
“One is part of the 25 abducted, and another one returned earlier,” Mr Magaji stated. “They are safe and well.”
This brings the number of girls still in captivity down to 24. Security forces, including the police and the Nigerian military, have been deployed to rescue the remaining girls.
President Bola Tinubu, in a statement released by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, on Monday, pledged to ensure the safe return of the abducted schoolgirls.
According to the police, a group of armed bandits, equipped with sophisticated weapons, stormed the school, firing indiscriminately, and abducted 25 schoolgirls while also killing the vice principal.
The police reported, “The tactical units deployed to the school engaged in a gunfight with the assailants. Unfortunately, the suspected bandits had already scaled the school fence and taken twenty-five students from their hostel to an unknown location. Additionally, one Hassan Makuku was shot dead, while Ali Shehu sustained an injury to his right hand.”
The kidnapping of the Kebbi schoolgirls comes over a decade after more than 270 girls were abducted from their dormitory in Chibok, Borno State, in 2014. Similarly, in 2018, over 100 schoolgirls were taken from Government Girls’ Science and Technical College in Dapchi, Yobe State.
