Kidnapped Kaduna Students Will Be Freed Soon – Lalong
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Plateau State Governor and Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum, Simon Lalong, has said that the abducted students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization in Kaduna State will be released soon.
Lalong gave the assurance when he visited his counterpart in Nasarawa State, Governor Abdullahi Sule on Saturday.
“We are very hopeful that at the end of the day, those students will be rescued,” Governor Lalong said while assuring an improved security situation in the country.
“We are raising consciousness and making people get alert at the insecurity. We are really putting every measure and very hopeful like the military has said, that in the next few months, everything will be over.”
The governor’s remarks come shortly after the kidnapped students called for help in a disturbing video.
The abducted students were seen being beaten by their captors, as they pleaded with the government to rescue them.
They were seen huddled together and sitting on tree leaves, with gun-wielding men, some of them dressed in military uniform, keeping watch over them.
The Kaduna State Government had put the number of those abducted at 39.
Meanwhile, security forces said they have stepped up efforts to rescue the college students.
President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed an early end to the hostage crisis.
Gunmen abducted the 39 students from their hostels in northwestern Kaduna state late Thursday, the latest in a series of such attacks.
The military managed to rescue 180 others after a fierce battle at the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation in Mando at the outskirts of the state capital, Kaduna city.
“A combined team of police, army and other security forces are in a frantic search for the kidnapped students,” state police spokesman Mohammadu Jalinge said.
“We are combing the surrounding forests and bushes with a view to freeing the hostages. Very soon, it will be over for the bandits.”
The gunmen had not made contacts with the authorities, he added.
State commissioner for internal security Samuel Aruwan said: “An operation for the students’ rescue is underway by security personnel from the army, air force, police and DSS (secret police).”