Gunmen suspected to be militants Thursday kidnapped six pupils at Government Model College, Igbonla, Epe, a Lagos hinterland.
The children were whisked away barely one week after the kidnappers wrote the school to notify the management they would strike.
Thursday’s kidnap was the second in the school since October, where four pupils and two teachers were taken into the Abeokuta forest through Epe lake by the militants.
It was gathered that the gunmen were clad in police uniforms and some of them were hooded.
According to sources, the militant have maintained visible presence in Epe for over two weeks.
Residents said for about three days, they have suffered continuous strikes from the gunmen, adding that two people including a poultry farmer, who notified soldiers of their activities, have been killed.
They were said to have been patrolling the waterways and even challenged security operatives to a gun duel in a bit to distract them and waste their ammunition.
However, the operatives, residents said did not give to the militants display and successfully foiled their plot to kidnap some students on Wednesday.
Undeterred, the gunmen said to be clad in black attires and hooded stormed the school again around 6am, and took away 10 students from senior school.
They were said to have profiled the students on their way out and eventually released four of them, who said their parents were farmers, poor, late or phone numbers unknown.
After letting the four children go, the gunmen took the other six including four in SS1 and two in SS2.
Some of the students said there were torrents of bullets on their hostel roofs since Wednesday night.
They said the kidnappers have been attempting to enter but were always kept at bay by policemen, who engaged them in gun battle.
At the school Thursday, angry parents protested the restriction of their wards to the hostels, insisting they must be taken home.
It was gathered that the kidnappers attempted to gain entrance into the school premises through the rear-fence after firing shots to scare the students but were intercepted by policemen on guard.
The parents, who frowned at the school’s inability to provide adequate security, said they would not return their wards unless their demands were met.
According to the parents, they had asked the school to clear the bushes, erect a formidable fence, put a police post by the creek and also station an armoured tank there, but none was done.
They lamented that the school’s fence was weak, adding that the gunmen were able to break the wall with a log because of the feebleness of the walls.
Mrs. Riskat Odunukan, whose son was released after he told them his father was a farmer said she thought it was a dream.
“I have two children in the school. They took one of them but after questioning them, he told them his father was late and his mother a farmer. So, they left him. I received a call from another parent about the incident. The school did not tell us anything. We called them and they said they were in control.
“The kidnappers broke the fence. They used a log to create a passage. It is because the fence is weak that is why it was possible for them to break in. Go through the school and you would find bushes. The security is porous.
“The last time I came into the school, security men were just two and they are usually at the gate. They don’t patrol. We told the school to provide adequate security the last time the incident happened but they didn’t listen. We need armoured tank stationed by the creek, a police station. They need to demolish the whole fence and erect a stronger and very high one. They are supposed to have CCTV cameras everywhere in this premises but they don’t.”