The Commanding Officer of the 21 Battalion Army, Lieutenant Colonel Godiya Monde, has said the gunmen who abducted four persons from an examination centre in Kogi State have established contact with negotiators, while troops are working to trace their location.
He added that soldiers have blocked all suspected crossing points to prevent the abductors from moving the victims deeper into the forest.
Monde disclosed this on Thursday while addressing journalists at the scene of the attack in Olowa, a community in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State.
“They’ve made some calls so far. We are tracking them to determine their location. I assure you, we’re going to rescue those children,” he said.
The commanding officer said four people were abducted: two students, the school principal and a supervisor who was overseeing the ongoing National Examinations Council (NECO) examination.
“Two of those kidnapped were students, alongside the principal and the supervisor who came for the NECO examination. That brings the total number of abductees to four. We are still searching for them and waiting for further contact,” he said.
Monde explained that troops immediately moved into the surrounding forest in search of the attackers and had since sealed all identified escape routes.
“As soon as we received the report, we swung into action and moved into the bush to search for the abductors. Presently, we have blocked all the suspected crossing points through which they could move the victims,” he said.
The officer described the examination centre as a “miracle centre” for external candidates sitting the Literature-in-English paper, noting that its remote location delayed the arrival of security personnel after the distress call.
“The challenge was that the school is in an isolated location. It is also being used as a miracle centre for external candidates. About 10 students were brought here for the Literature-in-English examination, and around 4:00 p.m. we received information that the school had been attacked.
“Even locating the school was difficult, but we eventually found it with the assistance of a member of the community,” he added.
Monde said troops found examination papers scattered across the classrooms on arrival, confirming that an attack had taken place.
“When we got here, we saw examination papers littered on the ground. That confirmed that such an incident had indeed occurred,” he said.
PUNCH Online had earlier reported that the attackers stormed the school on Tuesday evening while candidates were writing the ongoing NECO examination, abducting the principal, a NECO ad hoc staff member and four students.
The Kogi State Police Command confirmed the incident, stating that a joint team of security agencies immediately launched a search-and-rescue operation. The command added that one of the abducted students had already been rescued, while efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims.
The Kogi State Government also disclosed that two of the abducted NECO candidates were not regular students of the school but external candidates who had registered to write their examinations at the centre, which it described as a “miracle centre.”
According to the government, the arrangement did not conform to the security framework put in place for the ongoing examinations, although it stressed that this did not diminish its responsibility to protect everyone affected by the attack.
The government added that the rescue operation was ordered by Governor Usman Ododo and is being coordinated by the State Security Adviser, retired Commander Jerry Omodara, in collaboration with the Nigeria Police Force, the Department of State Services (DSS), the Vigilante Service and local hunters.
