Lagos, Nigeria (GNB ): Gunmen in Nigeria have released at least 42 people who were kidnapped from a boarding school last week in the north-central state of Niger, the state’s governor said.
The released group included 27 students, teachers, and family members, the state government said in a statement at the time of the kidnapping.
Their announcement comes just a day after a separate raid on a school in Nigeria’s Zamfara state where gunmen seized more than 300 girls.
Kidnappings for ransom by armed groups, many of whom carry guns and ride motorcycles, are common across many northern Nigerian states.
Last week, 27 students, three staff and 12 members of their families were abducted by an armed gang who stormed the Government Science secondary school in the Kagara district of Niger state at around 2am local time, overwhelming the school’s security detail.
One boy was killed during the raid, local media reported.
“The Abducted Students, Staff and Relatives of Government Science Collage Kagara have regained their freedom and have been received by the Niger State Government,” Governor Abubakar Sani Bello tweeted.
Criminal gangs, referred to locally as “bandits,” have increasingly been involved in kidnappings, rapes and other crimes across central and northern Nigeria.
The gangs are often driven by financial motives — kidnapping children and others, and holding them for ransom.
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