Bandits, on Friday, released 32 more students of Bethel Baptist High School, Kaduna.
On July 5, 2021, bandits had invaded the school located some few kilometres from Kaduna metropolis and abducted 121 students.
Joseph Hayab, chairman of the Kaduna state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), confirmed the students’ release on Friday.
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The Kaduna CAN chairman revealed that “32 of the students have been released this evening, remaining 31 with the bandits”.
Hayab said the released students have been reunited with their parents.
Last week Friday, 15 of the students were released by the bandits – despite promising to free them all.
Israel Akanji, president of the Nigerian Baptist Convention (NBC), had said “the number was smaller than what we were expecting because we had 78 children out there. They had earlier given us 15, which means 63 to come.
“But in everything, God said we should give thanks and we are giving thanks for what he has done. We are trusting that the same God who has brought these 15 out is going to help us to receive the other 63”.
The students were kidnapped on Monday, July 5, 2021, around 2 am on the school premises along the Kaduna-Kachia Expressway, Damishi, Chikun Local Government Area of the state.
The bandits freed one student on the basis of ill health.
The student, it was stated, was returned by two of the abductors.
The first batch of 28 of the students to secure their freedom spent 20 days in the kidnappers’ den.
Later on, four students also escaped from their captors.
On August 3, three more kidnapped students of Bethel Baptist High School, Kaduna reportedly escaped from captivity.
They were subsequently found by security operatives roaming the forest in the Chikun Local Government Area of the state.