Parents of the abducted 287 Kaduna school children, on Sunday breathed a sigh of relief following news of their release.
Governor Uba Sani broke news of the release of the abducted children in a statement he issued at about 4:30am on Sunday.
“In the name of Allah the Beneficent, the Most Merciful, I wish to announce that our Kuriga school children have been released”, the governor announced in the statement.
Some of the parents trooped to the Government House, anxiously looking forward to be reunited with their children.
However after several hours of waiting for their arrival, they were informed that the children will be brought in on Monday.
On March 7, bandits invaded LEA Primary School and Government Secondary School, Kuriga, Chikun Local Government Area of the state at about 8:30 am.
The bandits killed one person while 312 schools children, including some of their teachers were abducted.
However, 25 of the pupils were said to have escaped and returned home, according while the bandits left with 287 others.
Before their release, on Sunday, the bandits had reportedly demanded for N1billion ransom.
While waiting for the arrival of the children, Governor Sani held a meeting between heads of security agencies and the parents.
It was gathered that during the meeting, the parents were advised against speaking to the media.
However, one of the parents, Jubril Gwadabe Kuriga, told journalists in an interview on Sunday at the Government House, that the government informed parents about the release of the children on Sunday morning and asked them to come to Government House.
He said news of the release of the children came as a big relief as the parents were going through pains and trauma.
“I can tell you that some parents are suffering from shock and trauma.
“There is a woman whose four children are among those abducted. She cannot eat and she cannot sleep”, he said.
Kuriga whose nine year old daughter is among the abducted school children said, “The government called us and informed us that the children are with them. That is the true story, but we have not seen them yet.
“They promised us by tomorrow (Monday) they will hand over the children to us.
“Each student or child will be handed over to the parents. We are feeling happy because it is not easy missing your child for this long period of time, so if we need to be happy.”
He said with the presence of security in the area, the children can go back to school.
“We are happy that we now have security presence. We are going to use them to see that our children go back to school”, he said.
It was not clear whether the children had arrived Kaduna from Zamfara state or not.
Kaduna state has come under frequent attacks by bandits in recent times.
In the last three weeks, over 400 people have been abducted by dare devil bandits.
On February 29, the criminals attacked Anguwan Auta in Gonin Gora community, a suburb in Kaduna metropolis, killing two people while three others were abducted.
Four days after, the bandits returned to the community and abducted 13 people.
Few days later, the bandits demanded for N40 trillion ransom for the release of the 16 people abducted in the community.
On March 12, the bandits invaded Buda Hausa, Kajuru LGA, and abducted 61 people.
Two days after (March 16) the criminals attacked Dogon Noma Community also in Kajuru LGA and killed one person while 14 others were abducted.
On Monday March 18, no fewer than 87 people were abducted when bandits attacked Tantatu community in Kajuru LGA.
None of these victims are yet to be released.
Meanwhile, Governor Uba Sani, on Sunday took delivery of a special Mobil Squad deployed to the state by the Inspector General of Police to check the activities of bandits.
Receiving the squads which include two Armoured Personnel Carriage (APC), Sani thank the IGP saying the gesture will go along way in addressing the security challenges facing the state
