One of the parents of the students abducted from Salihu Tanko Islamiyya School in Tegina town in Rafi Local Government of Niger State has died of shock.
Alhaji Abubakar Alhassan, owner of the school, disclosed this on Wednesday.
He said the parent, who fainted when she heard about the abduction, was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
In a voice note circulated among journalists, Alhassan said the bandits confirmed to have 150 pupils.
“One of the kids parent is now dead because when she heard, she fainted, they rushed her to the hospital where she was pronounced dead because she has just only one child.
Alhassan, who said he spoke with the bandits, disclosed that one of the teachers among those kidnapped, complained to him that they have started beating them and that some of the children cannot move again.
Narrating how the abduction took place, he explained, “I was not at the school premises when the incident happened, I was about crossing the main road to enter the school when I saw them on motorcycles two on each and about 55 of them with heavy ammunition, all masked up.
“They started shooting to scare people away. I ran away and was watching them from afar. They surrounded the school and started their operation after which I tried to reach the local government police station and went and report to them but they said they could not go after them because their weapons were small compared to the ones with the bandits.
“When they evacuated all of them, they took them to the bush and released about 10 of them who couldn’t walk because they were too small and they didn’t want to carry them.”
On the ransom, he said the bandits reached out to him to demand N110 million.
“My teachers are with them, two females and one male who have my number. The bandits asked them who they were going to call and they gave them my number so they started calling and negotiating with me.
“They first asked for N300m which we say we don’t have then and they reduced it to N100 million and said that if we didn’t pay them the money that day, they will increase it to N110m which was they last price they gave us,” he said