Kankara School Attack: Boko Haram Claims Responsibility, Says it Abducted 523 Schoolboys

Malik Yahya/

Terrorist group, Boko Haram, has claimed responsibility for last Friday’s attack on Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State.

The group also said it currently has 523 students abducted from the school in its custody.

The dreaded group disclosed this in an audio message it released early this morning.

According the group, the attack was aimed at reaffirming its opposition to secular education in the northern parts of the country.

The terrorist group also revealed that the reason for the 72-hour delay in claiming responsibility for the attack was because they were trying to first ensure they had “secured” the schoolboys.

This latest revelation conflicts with media reports describing the abductors as “bandits”.

Katsina State governor, Aminu Masari, had on Sunday given the figure of missing students as 333.

“Based on the available record we have, we are still searching for 333 students through either the forest or their parents to ascertain the actual number that has been kidnapped.

“We are still counting because more are coming out from the forest and we are calling through the numbers of those parents that have phone numbers to find out whether or not their children have gone back home,” Masari said when he received a Federal Government delegation from Abuja.

The governor also said the school had a total population of 839 students.

However, on the same day, President Muhammadu Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, claimed only 10 students were missing.

“Some of the children who fled the bush said that 10 children were being held hostage by the gunmen,” he told BBC Hausa.

A Daily Trust report published yesterday, however, revealed that 668 students were missing according to the official records of the school, and that the school had a total student population of 1,074.

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