Kidnapped Nigerian students freed after ransom paid
FILE PHOTO: Children kidnapped by Boko Haram from the Government Science Secondary school, in Kankara, in northwestern Katsina State, Nigeria are seen returning after having been freed on December 18, 2020.
Sixstudentsand two officials who werekidnappedlast month from a school in Nigeria's Kaduna state were releasedafterrelativespaidransommoney, a school official and parent said on Friday.
Kidnappings by armed men, commonly referred to in Nigeria as "bandits", have become endemic in northern Nigeria, disrupting the education of hundreds of thousands of children.
Gunmen attacked the main campus of the Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic in Kaduna on June 10 and tookstudentsand staff members, in the process killing one student.
The college's spokesman Abdullahi Shehu, said thestudentsand officials were released late on Thursday at an undisclosed location.
They "regained theirfreedomaftertheir parents and relatives negotiated with the bandits", Shehu told Reuters, but declined to say whether negotiations involved paying aransom.
A parent whose child waskidnappedsaid parents and relatives of thestudentsnegotiated with the gunmen andpaidransommoney.
"I am not in position to tell you how much we contributed andpaid. That is not necessary. The most important thing is that we have secured theirfreedom, period," Saminu Bala, one of the parents of thefreedstudents, said.
At least 10 institutions have been hit by kidnappers and around 1,000studentsand staff abducted since December.