A Teacher and Eight students abducted by bandits on Thursday at the Federal Government College in Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State, have been rescued, according to Rabiu Kamba, a Special Adviser to the Governor of Kebbi State.

Armed bandits on motorcycles, numbering around 150, stormed the college on Thursday around 12:30 p.m. and abducted an unknown number of students.

Kamba said the rescued abductees were currently in military custody, and that plans were in the works to hand the victims over to the government for reunification with their families.

He said, “A teacher and eight students were rescued by the military.

“They are at present in the custody of the military in Dirin Daji. The government will soon receive them for a reunion with their respective families.”

We  had reported that troops had engaged bandits in a gun battle in an effort to rescue the students.

One of the students  died during  the fire exchange.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Force Commander of the Joint Task Force in the North-West Zone, Air Commodore Abubakar AbdulKadir, confirmed this to reporters in Zamfara State on Friday.

‘Rescue operation ongoing’
Meanwhile, the Police in Kebbi State have said the rescue operation was still ongoing for the missing students.
This was contained in a statement made available to newsmen by the police spokesperson of the command, DSP Nafiu Abubakar.
The police also denied the report that their van was used by the bandits in evacuating the abductees, saying the vehicle used in evacuating the yet to be ascertained number of missing students belong to a Kebbi State Judge.

According to him; “In view of the above, the command also wishes to make it clear and to make the record straight that yet to be ascertained of the students are still missing as the rescue operation is still ongoing.
” The white Hilux Van with registration number KBSJ 29, belonging to a High Court Judge, with the inscription of Kebbi State Judiciary, hijacked by the bandits along Birnin Yauri road, was the one used in perpetrating such a dastardly act and not the police vehicle as stated by some media stations.”

Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has fired 99 of his political appointees.

El-Rufai said that disengaged appointees make up 30% of political office holders during a media interaction with several Kaduna-based TV journalists.

He said that the state had begun to implement its rightsizing strategy, but that no state government servants had yet been laid off.

Only local government councils, SUBEB, and the Primary Health Care Board, according to the governor, have disengaged employees.

“So far, 99 political appointees have lost their jobs but we have not commenced rightsizing civil servants. We want to be fair with regards to civil servants. We had earlier promised that before we reduce the size of the civil service, we will start with political appointees and we have done that,’’ he said.

The governor, who spoke in Hausa, said the rightsizing of civil servants will still go on as planned because of dwindling revenues that is accruing to the state government from the federation account.

‘’However, civil servants with question marks on the veracity of their data have to be given a chance to clear the doubts before any action is taken on them,’’ he clarified.

The governor said his government has employed 11,000 more workers in the health sector, Kaduna State University as well as primary and secondary schools across the state.

The governor disclosed that it is a fallacy to allege that the salaries of political appointees account for the bloated personnel cost of the State Government.

‘’In March 2021, the salaries of these political appointees amounted to N259 million , while civil servants were paid N3.13 billion, aside from costs related to state contributions to pension, accrued rights and other personnel costs. So, it is false to insinuate that political appointees are the ones that guzzle most of the state’s resources,’’ he said.

Justifying the rightsizing of the public service, he said that all states and the federal government are affected by the shortfall of revenue and some states have even reverted to paying the old monthly minimum wage of N18,000.

The governor, however, promised that Kaduna state will not reverse the N30,000 minimum wage that it has started paying.

“We are the first government, federal or state, to pay the minimum wage. We will retain the minimum wage of N30,000 and the consequential adjustments that gave most of our civil servants a 66% salary increase. We will also retain the minimum pension of N30,000 monthly.

“The unified Local Government Service continues to pay the minimum wage, even though they varied the consequential adjustments for their workers below the level for state civil servants,’’ he added.

In an exchange of gunfire between troops and bandits, one of the students seized from the Federal Government College in Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State, has perished.

Air Commodore Abubakar AbdulKadir, the Deputy Force Commander of the Joint Task Force in the North-West Zone, confirmed this to reporters in Zamfara State on Friday.

During the operation, he added, four students and a teacher were rescued.

“In the early hours of this morning, we came across the kidnappers. They came to our blocking point, and we engaged them,” Abdulkadir said.

“At that point, they abandoned five of the students and one of the teachers. Unfortunately, I think we have lost one of the students.”

AbdulKadir did not comment on whether the bandits or troops recorded casualties.

Meanwhile, the Police in Kebbi have said rescue operation is still ongoing for the missing students.
DSP Nafiu Abubakar, spokesperson of the Kebbi Police Command, announced this in a statement made available to newsmen.
“In view of the above, the command also wishes to make it clear and to make the record straight that yet to be ascertained of the students are still missing as the rescue operation is still ongoing.”
“The white Hilux Van with registration number KBSJ 29, belonging to a High Court Judge , with inscription of Kebbi State Judiciary, hijacked by the bandits along Birnin Yauri road, was the one used in perpetrating such a dastardly act.”
Bandits stormed the college around 12:30pm on Thursday and abducted many of the students.

According to a video statement from its supposed new commander, Nigeria’s Boko Haram terrorist group has reported the death of its chief Abubakar Shekau, who reports believe perished during infighting with a rival Islamic State-allied cell.

Top Boko Haram commander Bakura Modu, also known as Sahaba, asked his faction’s commanders to remain loyal after the loss of their historic commander in a short video in Arabic.

Though Islamic State in West Africa Province, or ISWAP, has recently emerged as the main force in Nigeria’s more than decade-long Islamist insurgency, Shekau’s death was considered as a dramatic turn in the battle in the country’s northeast.

The video, provided to AFP by a source close to Boko Haram and confirmed to be Bakura Modu by another local source, illustrates that jihadist infighting is far from over in Africa’s most populous nation.

Shekau, who gained notoriety after kidnapping nearly 300 schoolgirls in 2014, killed himself last month rather than surrender after IS-allied rivals attacked his base camp in Nigeria’s northeast Borno state, security sources said.

In an audio, ISWAP commander Abu Musab Al-Barnawi had already claimed Shekau killed himself while on the run from ISWAP fighters.

The undated Boko Haram video shows Bakura flanked by scores of armed fighters in formation as he addresses the camera, in what is traditionally a jihadist group’s way of presenting a new leader.

Commanders of Jama’atu Ahlu Sunna Lidda’awati Wal Jihad. Be steadfast and draw your swords, spreading your jihad, decapitating the enemy,” he said, using the official name of Shekau’s Boko Haram faction also known as JAS.

“Don’t allow what befalls you these days to weaken your resolve on the jihad your are waging, because Allah has not forsaken your efforts.”

He also urges Boko Haram commanders to reject ISWAP commander Barnawi.

Soon after the initial reports of Shekau’s death last month, infighting between Nigeria’s two rival jihadist factions intensified. ISWAP fighters moved against Boko Haram commanders who refused to surrender and join their ranks, intelligence sources have said.

The two factions have skirmished in the past since ISWAP split from Boko Haram in 2016, objecting to Shekau’s indiscriminate targeting of Muslim civilians and use of women suicide bombers.

Bakura’s faction is one of the Boko Haram elements operating in the Lake Chad area where they have access to porous borders with Chad and Niger. (AFP)

Senator Ali Ndume claims that he feels more at ease in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, than in Abuja.

Boko Haram has assaulted Maiduguri and its environs several times, but the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army claimed on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday that security in the Borno state capital has improved.

According to him; “I live in Abuja and also live in Maiduguri. Once I come to Maiduguri, I feel safer than in Abuja, because somebody can knock down your door with a gun. In Maiduguri, we don’t hear of that.”

“It is outside Maiduguri where the insurgents are marauding around and attack intermittently. And that’s normal with insurgents, that’s why they are called insurgents, they do hit and run on soft targets.

“In every society, you can’t wipe out criminality completely. In America, there is school shooting. Our own is that we have known terrorists and the army is fighting them.”

Senator Ndume, who has repeatedly called for more funding for the army, said the situation seems to be improving with President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to the welfare of the fighting troops.

The Senator described Buhari’s visit as a boost to the morale of the troops on the battlefront.

“The President went round for six hours – I was tired. He came in 10 o’clock and we were going to see various projects until four o’clock this evening before he left,” he said, praising President Buhari’s stamina.