26 Days After Oyo School Children, Teachers Were Kidnapped, Bandits Invade Kogi School, Gun Down VP, Abduct Students

<h4>26 Days After Oyo School Children<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<h4><&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a> reports that 26 days ago&comma; students and teachers were abducted in Oyo State&period; Till date&comma; they are still being held in captivity&period; The attack occurred on May 15&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The mass kidnapping took place across multiple schools in the Oriire Local Government Area of the state&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Even when government has not been able to release the kidnapped students&comma; bandits have invaded Government Secondary School&comma; Iluke Bunu&comma; Kabba-Bunu Local Government Area of Kogi State&comma; killing three persons&comma; including the Vice Principal&comma; Mr&period; Gani Anifowose&comma; and two others&comma; while abducting some students&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;According to some residents&comma; the incident happened around 9&colon;45am on Wednesday&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The bandits were said to have targeted students sitting for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination &lpar;WASSCE&rpar;&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The major target of the attack was UBE Iluke Bunu&comma; where students from three communities were sitting for their WAEC examination at the time of the invasion&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Vice Principal of Government Secondary School&comma; Aharha-Bunu&comma;Mr&period; Gani Anifowose&comma; was killed alongside two other persons&period; Three students and several residents were abducted in the attack&comma;” the source said&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The Chairman of Kabba&sol;Bunu Local Government Area&comma; Hon&period; &lpar;Barr&period;&rpar; Zacchaeus Dare Michael&comma; has condemned the attack&comma; describing the incident &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;as unfortunate&comma; barbaric&comma; and unacceptable”&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The Chairman expressed his heartfelt condolences to the families of those who had lost their lives in the attack &comma; assuring that efforts were being made to arrest the culprits&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He assured residents of the Local Government’s unwavering commitment to the protection of lives and property across all communities within the area&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Local Government Administration is working closely with relevant security agencies and stakeholders to ensure that lasting measures are put in place to forestall any recurrence of such attacks&comma;” he said&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The Kogi State Police Command confirmed the attack in a statement&comma; saying three persons lost their lives in the invasion &colon; Mr&period; Ganiyu Anifowose&comma; the Vice Principal of UBE Secondary&sol;Primary School&comma; Iluke&semi; Mr&period; Sunday Jacob Alhassan&comma; aged 70 years&semi; and one Sunday Ayele&comma; aged 6 years&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;At about 10&colon;00 a&period;m&period;&comma; the Command received distress information that a large number of heavily armed bandits&comma; operating on about forty &lpar;40&rpar; motorcycles&comma; had invaded Government Secondary School&comma; Iluke Bunu&comma; with the suspected intention of abducting students and other residents of the community&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Upon receipt of the report&comma; the Divisional Police Officer&comma; Kabba &OpenCurlyQuote;A’ Division&comma; immediately activated a coordinated security response by mobilizing personnel from the Division&comma; alongside operatives of the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;punchng&period;com&sol;">Police Mobile Force<&sol;a> and the Command’s Tactical Teams&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Other security personnel already deployed in the area&comma; including military personnel and local vigilante groups&comma; were equally alerted and joined the operation&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The combined security operatives engaged the hoodlums in a fierce gun duel&comma; forcing the criminals to flee into the surrounding bush”&comma; the command said in a statement signed by ASP Saliu Oyiza&comma; the police command’s spokesperson&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; the police authorities noted that preliminary findings indicate that there is presently no conclusive evidence of a successful mass abduction of students or other residents&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Investigations and ongoing assessments are continuing to ascertain the full circumstances surrounding the incident&comma;” statement read &period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Meanwhile&comma; the police noted that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;during the exchange of gunfire&comma; one of the bandits was neutralized&comma; while a security operatives attached to the joint team sustained gunshot injuries and are currently receiving medical treatment”&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Police further stated that Joint security operatives comprising the Police&comma; military personnel&comma; and local vigilantes were currently conducting intensive operations aimed at apprehending the fleeing criminals and preventing any further threat to lives and property&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;