Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State has announced that 279 students of the Government Girls Secondary School in Jangebe were abducted last week Friday.
Speaking with reporters at the Government House, Gusau, on Tuesday, Matawalle said earlier figures released by the police are incorrect.
The governor said no ransom was paid to the abductors, alleging that some persons attempted to sabotage efforts of the government to release the abducted students.
Matawalle revealed that while the government was negotiating the release of the girls, some persons offered the bandits money to keep them in captivity.
“While the state was in negotiation with the abductors for the release of the schoolgirls, other persons wanted the armed bandits to keep the girls in captivity,” Matawalle said.
Naija News reports that the latest abduction brings to 1,119 the total number of students kidnapped in the north since April 2014. The initial figure from Zamfara had jacked up the number by 38, giving a total of 1,157.
Meanwhile, officers of the Katsina State Police Command have arrested three members of a gang of bandits and recovered from them a sum of N3.6 million paid to them as ransom.
The command’s spokesman, Gambo Isah, who disclosed this on Monday, identified the suspects as members of a notorious gang of bandits and kidnappers terrorising Katsina and Zamfara states.
He said: “The suspects, Lawali Duna, 40, Muhammadu Lawali Babuga, 22, and Hussaini Abubakar, 30, were arrested by a police patrol team attached to Faskari Division, while on routine patrol along Funtua-Yankara Road on February 25.
“Nemesis caught up with the suspects when they were intercepted on their way back to Zamfara State from Kaduna after collecting ransom money from the relatives of a kidnapped victim. In the course of the investigation, the suspects confessed to the commission of the offence.”