By Segun Martins-
The Nigerian government has rescued some 100 children who were abducted from a Catholic boarding school last month and promised to secure the release of 150 others who remain in captivity.
The freed children were between the ages of 10 and 17, who arrived wearing football jerseys, robes and slippers. They were received by officials who hugged and shook hands with some before posing with them in front of cameras. It is not clear whether the government agreed a ransom deal with the kidnappers; as such is often the objective of the kidnappers who have for years now initiated a wave of kidnappings in Northern Nigeria.
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The children were among some 303 students seized with 12 of their teachers from the St Mary’s Catholic School in the Papri community in Niger State on November 21. According to reports, around 50 students escaped in the hours that followed.
Niger’s governor, Mohammed Bago, speaking at Government House in the state capital of Minna, said the students freed on Monday will be “safely delivered” to their parents in Papiri soon.
“To those who have been praying, please continue to pray,” Bago told a gathering of government and security officials. “We hope to recover the remaining students who are still in captivity.”‘
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu commended security agencies “for their steadfast work” in ensuring the safe return of the students, but did not provide further details.
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“My directive to our security forces remains that all the students and other abducted Nigerians across the country must be rescued and brought back home safely,” Tinubu said.
A spokesman for Tinubu said 115 students and their 12 teachers remain in captivity,althought news agencies put the figure at 165.
Theresa Pamma, a UNICEF official, said the children will “certainly need some help”, including mental healthcare, after enduring two weeks in captivity.
One of the children freed on Monday, Florence Michael, said they slept on a tarpaulin in the forest.
“They gave us tarpaulin, [said] that we should put it down, that we should lie down and sleep, that we should not make noise for them,” she said.
The situation in Northern Nigeria which has seen both killings and kidnappings in schools and churches has alarmed and horrified Nigerians. Many frustrated Nigerians have taken to social media calling desperately for help from U.S President Trump, who has expressed horror at the level of persecution faced by Christians in the north, many of whom have been routinely murdered by extreme Jihadist for their faith.
The Nigerian government has attacked the claims, stating that Muslims have also been killed in the mayhem. American planes are said to have recently been hovering the skies of some cities in northern Nigeria, with a view to monitoring developments on the ground.
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