Armed bandits have attacked Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe in Talata Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State, kidnapping hundreds of schoolgirls.
Although details are still sketchy, sources told BBC Hausa on Friday morning that over 300 schoolgirls were abducted in the latest mass school abduction in Zamfara.
Worried parents have gathered outside the school and some have gone out into the bush to look for their daughters, witnesses say.
A teacher said of 421 students in the school at the time, only 55 had been unaccounted for, meaning more than 300 were believed to have been kidnapped.
This is coming barely a week after the abduction of dozens of schoolboys in Kagara, Niger State. The Kagara students are still with the abductors at press time.
The Zamfara State Commissioner of Security and Home Affairs, Alhaji Abubakar Dauran in a brief interview on Friday morning, confirmed that the incident was true.
Dauran, however, noted that the number of students abducted is yet to be ascertained.
He said: “I can confirm to you now that we have sadly received the report on the abduction of the students of GGSS Jangebe and right now, I am on my way to the school.
“At this moment, l cannot say how many students were taken away by the gunmen until l get there, but we have already mobilized security men and members of the vigilantatè who are now in pursuit of the abductors,” the commissioner stated.
A staff of the school who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “the gunmen in their hundreds invaded the town around 2 am on Friday, shot sporadically in the air to scare the residents before coming into the school.
“After taking away most of the students, we rounded up those that escaped or hid from the bandits and conducted a census where we counted 54 students and we are still searching to see if we can get more.
Also, a resident who gave his name as Haliru Jangebe said, the local vigilantes had tried to repel the invaders but were overpowered.
“The bandits were too many and they all seemed to be carrying heavy arms as we heard gunshots from all parts of the town and when the shots stopped, we heard that the students had been taken away”.