Nigeria school children kidnapping: Gunmen threaten to kill 287 kids if $622,000 ransom not paid

The gunmen, who had kidnappednearly 287 school children in Nigeria, havemade a ransom demand for 1 billion naira ($621,848) and said that they would kill all the students if their demands were not fulfilled, said a member of the local community while speaking to CNN on Wednesday (Mar 13).

“They called me from a hidden number yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon at around 16 minutes past 12, and demanded 1 billion naira ($621,848) as a ransom for the students. They said [the ultimatum] will only last for three weeks or 20 days from the date they kidnapped the children and if there’s no action from the government, they will kill all of them,” Aminu Jibril, a resident of Kuriga village in Kaduna state, said. The militants had kidnapped the children on March 7.

Speaking to CNN, Jibril informed that the gunmen claimed the kidnapping was “a way of getting back at the government and security agencies for killing their gang members.”

The Kuriga community's members stated that the kidnappers most likely got his number from the head of the school’s junior secondary section, who had also been kidnapped by them.

Nigeria School Children Kidnapping Case

Armed bandits, riding motorcycles, kidnapped more than 300 students early on March 7 morning. The gunmen stormed the LEA Primary and Secondary School in Kuriga village in Kaduna’s Chikun district, said the state’s police spokesman Mansur Hassan.

The officials were able to rescue some of the students but 287 of them are still with the kidnappers. Among the children abducted, some 100 of them were from primary school and the rest belonged to the secondary school.

Watch:Nigeria Kuriga Kidnap: Armed forces deployed by Nigerian govt to rescue students

In a statement, Kaduna Governor Uba Sani said that his government was “doing everything possible to ensure the safe return of the pupils and students".

Sani added that a community member who had confronted the gunmen during the attack was killed.

(With inputs from agencies)