The terrorists who abducted five students of the Federal University, Dutsin Ma, Katsina State were avenging an attack on the relatives of some members of their gang by security operatives, the vice chancellor of the university, Armaya’u Bichi, has revealed.
Bichi, during an interview with DW Hausa monitored on Friday afternoon said the abductors revealed the reason for kidnapping the students during a negotiation to secure their release.
The female students were abducted on Wednesday when the terrorists invaded their off-campus residence in the Mariamoh Ajiri area of Dutsin Ma town.
Bichi, however, didn’t say whether the terrorists demanded a ransom for the release of the students.
“Discussions are ongoing with them (terrorists). Security agencies in the state are doing their best (to rescue the students). They (terrorists) have spoken and they said it was a revenge for an attack on their (terrorists) parents in Batsari Local Government. Houses belonging to their parents were burnt down and their cattle as well as grains took away.
“They wanted to avenge the attack in Batsari but another terror group leader was not in support of their actions and he stopped them so they came to Dutsin Ma to take the revenge.
“But they (terrorists) have been told the truth that the people of Dutsin Ma and the students have done nothing wrong to them so they should release the abducted students. We believe that by God’s grace, they’ll release them,” Bichi added.
He said students were warned to stop living in some areas of the town due to their vulnerability to attacks.
“Our university is fenced, we’ve also dug trenches around the wall. When I was appointed VC, I wrote to the commander in Katsina to give us soldiers and 30 have been sent to us. We also have 30 policemen, we’ve also hired about 60 vigilante group members who conduct patrol at night.
“We’ve an area where we advised that students should live (off campus) but these ones live about two kilometres from where we asked them to live,” he said.
Bichi noted that the university and security agencies are working closely to ensure that the abducted students are rescued.
North-west Nigeria has been witnessing a surge in banditry activities with the abduction of students from Federal University Gusau and Federal University Dutsin Ma headlining the renewed assault.
Terror gangs, especially in Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kaduna and Kebbi, kill and or abduct residents from communities and on major and local highways and demand ransom, sometimes in millions of naira, before releasing the abductees.