We Planned To Attack Bandits Even If It Meant Killing Abducted Students – Governor El-Rufai

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has revealed how his government planned to rescue the 29 students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation in Afaka, Kaduna, who were abducted by bandits.

Speaking on Thursday during a webinar organised by the Africa Leadership Group, El-Rufai said his government planned to bombard the hideous of the bandits even if it meant some abducted students would die in the process.

The Governor, however, noted that before the bombardment could be done, the bandits hurriedly changed location which led to the students spending over a month in captivity.

“Two days after the abduction of the Afaka young people, I was assured by the air force and the army that they knew where the kidnappers were with the students and they had encircled (them),” he said.

“We were going to attack them. We would lose a few students but we would kill all the bandits and we would recover some of the students.

“That was our plan. That was the plan of the air force and the army… But they slipped through the cordon of the army. That is why they were not attacked.

“We know it is risky, we know in the process we may lose some of the abductees but it is a price we have to pay. This is war, there will always be collateral damage in war and we will rather do that than pay money because paying money has not solved the problem anywhere in the world.”

The governor admitted that he had “lost weight” over the insecurity in Kaduna State which was giving him sleepless nights.

He, however, claimed that insecurity in Kaduna was not as bad as Niger, Katsina and Zamfara but the media only focused attention on his state because it fitted into their narrative of ethnic clashes.

El-Rufai said in Katsina and Niger states, entire villages were sacked by bandits but nothing of such happened in Kaduna.

KanyiDaily had reported how 39 students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna, were kidnapped by bandits on March 11, 2021.