Hmmm.....Scores of parents and guardians, on
Saturday, flocked to the Nigerian-Turkish International College in Ogun
State to withdraw their wards following the abduction of five pupils.
The victims, which included three
regular pupils and two other girls enrolled in the school for the
Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination coaching, were kidnapped at
gunpoint on Friday, on the college’s premises.
Narrating how the gunmen abducted the
victims, the school Principal, Yunus Emre Dogan, and the school’s
Security Adviser, Stephen Adewunmi, said the abductors arrived around
9.20 pm on Friday and started shooting sporadically.
To gain entry into the compound, they
were said to have dug a big hole in a fence beside a swampy area at the
back of the school and headed for the female hostel.
Dogan said, “Afterwards, they took away
three regular pupils, two others who were preparing for the UTME and
three members of staff.”
When one of our correspondents visited
the school on Saturday afternoon, parents were seen entering the school
in a continuous stream of vehicles and leading their wards, carrying
suitcases, into waiting cars.
Over 50 heavily armed soldiers, police
officers and officers of the Vigilante Service of Ogun State patrolled
the school grounds.
The panic-stricken parents were said to have asked the management of the school to give their children one-week break.
Some of the parents, who spoke to
journalists during a visit by the Deputy Governor of Ogun State, Mrs.
Yetunde Onanuga, said their children were traumatised by the incident
and would need some time to recover.
Ahmad Ajani, whose daughter was kidnapped, said he got the news at midnight.
Ajani said his child, Hanatullah Ajani, was in the school to study for the UTME before the incident.
He said, “Somebody called me in the
midnight that something happened here (the school) and my daughter was
involved. I came down to the school and the police commissioner
addressed us, assuring us that everything would be alright soon. I am
very sad but prayerful that they will be rescued on time. I am
traumatised.”
Another parent, Funmi Tijani, expressed
disappointment over lack of security measures, including poor lighting
of the school’s exterior.
She said, “The road is not tarred. There
is no security light and there are bushes all around. Last year, the
school was closed down for two weeks because of flood. There should be
adequate security.
“We have agreed among ourselves to take
our children away for a week. My daughter witnessed the whole scenario
and she’s traumatised. So you don’t expect me to leave her behind.”
The management and parents had yet to be contacted by the kidnappers, as of the time of filing this report.
The Assistant Inspector General of
Police, Zone 2, Kayode Oluranti; the state Commissioner of Police, Ahmed
Ilyasu; the State Director of the Department of State Services, Kabiru
Sanni, also visited the school.
We gathered that the
Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, deployed the IG Intelligence
Response Team, led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari,
in creeks around Ogun and Lagos states to rescue the victims.
A police source told one of our
correspondents that the kidnappers may be members of the gang who
abducted three pupils of Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary in Ikorodu
on March 1, 2016.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer in Ogun State, Abimbola Oyeyemi, told us,
“We are doing everything possible to ensure the safe return of the
pupils and the school’s employees who were kidnapped on Friday night.
The Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad, the Anti-Kidnapping Squad and
other security agencies had been deployed.”
When contacted at 5.03 pm on Saturday, a
spokesperson for the school, Cemal Yigit, said, “We are just waiting to
be contacted (by the police) and praying. Like we did in the morning,
as soon as we have any update on the incident, we will let you know.
“The school security noticed some
movement on the Closed-Circuit TV camera at the girls’ section and
promptly deployed security personnel and alerted the relevant security
agencies in the area as customary.
“Upon hearing the security alarm
activated and sighting our security personnel, the armed invaders shot
at the security personnel and managed to escape with the hostages. The
security agencies are currently on their trail as the whole area has
been cordoned off,” Yigit said in a statement issued on Saturday.
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