Following the abduction of schoolboys on Friday in Katsina state, BBC Hausa has interviewed one of the abducted boys who managed to escape from the bandits.
The 17-year-old schoolboy who pleaded anonymous recounts the incident leading to their abduction, the number of students abducted, and how he managed to escape from the bandits who attacked their school and kidnapped hundreds of students.
The boy explained that on Friday night after returning from class around 9:30 pm, they heard gunshots fired in the air, as the bandits gain entrance into the school.
He said: “Everyone came out and we ran up the wall. After we climbed the wall they used to light our lights and tell us to come back.”
According to the student, it was then that they turned around and returned; thinking that the men were security officers, but later realized that they were not.
When asked how many students were kidnapped he said,
“After we were taken into the forest, one of them ordered us to stop and count our belongings before continuing our journey, he said that when they were counted, it was found that they were 520 in number.
The source added, “We kept walking in the bush, we were being pushed and beaten, we spent the night walking, 30 minutes before dawn we were told to go to bed and rest”
On how he managed to escape, he explained that “After they sat us down I leaned back a little. I found the side of a tree and I turned my back on them. I lay down and straightened my legs after everyone left, I came crawling and looking until I entered the city”
The visibly scared schoolboy said even if a person escapes from the hands of the bandits, you do not know where to go because only the forest can be seen, so only God saved him from the hands of the abductors.
