Abducted Katsina students to be rescued soon – Defence minister

The Minister of Defence, Maj.-Gen. Bashir Magashi (retd), assured Nigerians on Sunday that the abducted students of the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, would be rescued soon.

Magashi gave the assurance when he led a Federal Government delegation on a sympathy visit to the Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari, over the students’ abduction.

Armed bandits had on Friday night attacked the college and abducted an unspecified number of students from their hostels.

The minister said security agents are working hard to rescue the students.

He said: “So far, we have been briefed by the state Police Commissioner, General Officer Commanding (GOC), Brigade Commander, Air Commander, Department of State Service (DSS), and other security officers.

” Our interest is to keep ourselves abreast with what actually happened two days ago and we believe with their briefings, this task is going to be simple for us.

“We have strategies and I believe we can do it without any collateral damage to the people of Katsina State.

“We have the intelligence, the information, their whereabouts, their movements and their methods of operations.

READ ALSO: KATSINA SCHOOL ABDUCTION: Masari confirms 333 students missing

“The task is easy for the armed forces and the police.

“The only thing is that we need prayers from you so that there will be no collateral damage in the event of being hostile.

“We assure you that all hands are on deck to rescue the students.”

In his remarks, Masari said the school has a population of 839 students.

He said the state government was still searching for at least 333 missing students.

Members of the federal government’s delegation to Katsina were the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (retd) and the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin.

Others were the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar, Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas and the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar.

Also on the trip to the state were the Director-General of the DSS, Yusuf Magaji-Bichi and Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NOA), Ahmed Rufai.

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