Gunmen Abduct University Students In Northern Nigeria

Kidnappers in Nigeria have struck again, abducting some students at a private university in the northern Kaduna state on Tuesday night, according to an official on Wednesday.

The Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs Samuel Aruwan confirmed the incident to reporters.

The incident is the first major attack that bandits launch on communities around the Kaduna-Abuja Highway since 300 female soldiers were deployed to the general area in January this year.

The Green Field University is located along the Kaduna–Abuja Highway in the Chikun Local Government Area, and it is also the state's first private university that was established three years ago.

But eyewitnesses over the phone told Anadolu Agency that the gunmen stormed the university last night and started shooting sporadically, before taking some of the students away.

Details on the number of the abducted university students are yet to be ascertained.

The locals said the university with about forty students does not have enough security on the ground, despite being located in one of the epicenters of kidnapping incidents, a situation which they believe made it easier for the bandits to gain easy access into the institution.

Kaduna has recently been facing a series of attacks by bandits, including assaults on schools.

On March 11, they attacked the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization Afaka in the Igabi Local Government Area of the state and kidnapped 39 students.

While 10 students have so far been released, the fate of the remaining ones still hangs in the balance.

Kaduna Governor Nasir El-Rufai has repeatedly insisted his government will not pay ransom to the kidnappers despite pleas by the parents of the abducted students. -