Renowned Islamic Scholar, Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, on Friday, met with the Governor of Niger State, Abubakar Bello, over the abduction of students and members of staff of Government Science College, Kagara.
Photos of Gumi meeting with some bandits in a forest in Niger State surfaced online on Friday.
The Islamic scholar later visited the governor at the Government House in Minna to brief him on the outcome of the meeting with the bandits.
Addressing journalists after the meeting with the governor, Gumi said, “The outcome is very positive because if you have warring factions and each faction says that I have complaints and grievances which are very simple, I think there is hope.”
Bello is expected to address the press any moment from now.
Recall that it was reported that some students and staff of Kagara were kidnapped when bandits stormed the school on Wednesday morning. A student was also reportedly killed by the bandits during the attack.
Bello had ordered the immediate closure of all boarding schools in the bandit-ravaged areas.
The Senate had also asked the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), to declare a state of emergency on security without further delay.
Wednesday’s attack happened a few months after bandits kidnapped over 300 schoolboys from Government Science Secondary School in Kankara, Katsina State.
The incident happened in December exactly on the same day the President visited his hometown in Daura, also in Katsina.
The lads were, however, released some six days later but it wasn’t clear whether a ransom was paid or not to secure their freedom.
Aside from Kankara and Kagara, non-state actors had also abducted hundreds of secondary school girls from Chibok, in Borno State; and Dapchi in Yobe State. Some of them eventually regained freedom while a number of them were detained in the enclaves of their abductors and sexual abusers.
