Following the abduction of hundreds of schoolboys of Government Science Secondary School in Kankara, Katsina State on Friday night, a terrorist group known as Boko Haram have claimed they are responsible.
In the wake of the attack, at least 600 out of over 800 schoolboys were declared missing.
BizWatch Nigeria had reported that the state governor, Aminu Masari, confirmed that over 300 students are missing, the school register showed 668 students missing. The governor had confirmed that his government was negotiating with the abductors of the missing students.
BizWatch Nigeria had reported that the Minister of Defence, Major General Bashir Magashi, had affirmed that all the schoolboys missing in Katsina State will return home in the next few hours.
He gave the assurance on Sunday when he led a delegation of the Federal Government, including the service chiefs to Katsina to sympathize with the parents and teachers of the victims, as well as the state government over the abduction.
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In a 4:30 audio message the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, said his group abducted the schoolboys because Western education is against the tenets of Islam.
“What happened in Katsina was done to promote Islam and discourage un-Islamic practices as Western education is not the type of education permitted by Allah and his Holy Prophet.
“They are also not teaching what Allah and his Holy Prophet commanded. They are rather destructing the Islam. It may be subtly, but Allah the Lord of the Skies and Earths knows whatever is hidden. May Allah promote Islam, may we die as Muslims.”
“In a nutshell, we are behind what happened in Katsina,” he said.
The terrorists’ leader ended the message by saying: “The speaker is Abubakar Shekau, leader of Jama’atu Ahlussunna Lid-Da’awati wal Jihad.”
Mr Shekau neither gave detail of the attack nor number of the abducted schoolboys nor mentioned the issue of negotiation with the government.
