Gunmen who kidnapped atleast 287 school children in Nigeria last Thursday have demanded a ransom of 1 billion naira ($621,848) and threatened to kill all the students if their demands are not met, Nigeria's Abuja Vision sent message in the wee hours of this morning.
The gunmen are said to have only given an ultimatum of two weeks or 20 days from the day the children were kidnapped and if there is no action from the government, they will kill all of them.
" They called me from a hidden number yesterday (Wednesday) evening at around 16 minutes past 5 and demanded 1 billion naira", Aminu Jibril, a resident of Kuriga village in Kaduna state where the school is located said.
The school children kidnappings is said to taken place on March 7th and the kidnappers only made mention of themselves yesterday.
A resident of the Kaduna state who preferred to talk of conditions of anonymity said that the action of the kidnappers was a way of getting back to the government and security agencies for killing their gang members
Jibril, the resident who received the phone call said he believed the kidnappers got his number from the head of the school's junior secondary section, who was kidnapped alongside his students.
More than 300 students were taken early Thursday morning by armed bandits on motorcycles who stormed LEA Primary and Secondary School in Kuriga Village in Kaduna's Chikun district, the state's police spokesman Hassan Masur told government yesterday.
Some students were rescued but 287 of them remain in the custody of the kidnappers with about 100 of them being from primary school and the rest from secondary school.
The Governor of Kaduna State Uba Sani said that his government was doing everything possible to ensure the safe return of the pupils and students.
The Governor also said in a press release yesterday that a member of the local community who confronted the kidnappers during the attack was killed.
Kaduna State, which borders Nigeria's capital Abuja to the southwest has grappled with kidnappings for ransom by bandits and has witnessed several mass abductions in the recent years including in the district where LEA Primary and Secondary School is located.
ln 2022, atleast 140 students were kidnapped from a private primary school by armed men and only 66 were recovered with the whereabouts of other children still unknown.
The incident came just 5 months after around 20 students from a private university in Chikun's Kasarami village were abducted by gunmen.
Five of those students were killed after their families failed to meet the ransom deadline.
