At Least 200 Islamiyya Students Kidnapped In Niger

At least 200 students of an Islamiyya school located at Tegina in Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State have been abducted. One person was shot dead while another lays critically injured after gunmen carried out the kidnap operation at about 4:30pm on Sunday.

A resident of the area Zayyad Mohammed confirmed the incident to Channels Television via telephone.
Details of the attack are sketchy, but Mohammed says the Salihu Tanko Islamiyya school where the incident took place, was built by a retired Immigration Officer.

According to him, this Islamiyya school is not the usual Sangaya boarding Islamic citadel, but a conventional one where parents send their children on a daily basis for the purpose of acquiring Islamic education.

At the time of filing this report, the police were yet to make any comments regarding the development.
However, the Secretary to the Niger State Government, Ahmed Matane says the number of the abducted students is yet to be ascertained.

According to him, “Yes, there was an attack at the Islamiyya school, but we do not yet have the exact number of students that were abducted. We are in touch with parents in the area to know those whose children were abducted.”

Mr. Matane who is the chairman of the state Security committee further revealed that while the attack in Tegina was going on, there were simultaneous attacks in Lavun LGA and some fringes of Mashegu LGA.

He said though the simultaneous attacks were overwhelming for security agencies at the time, the government in collaboration with security agencies has mobilized troops to the various areas, including local vigilantes.