Multiple sources, including residents and security operatives revealed on Saturday that the bandits who were said to be in hundreds and fully armed, stormed Kankara in Katsina state on foot a few minutes after 9pm having parked their motorcycles at a nearby village to avoid suspicion by residents and security operatives stationed in Kankara.

It was further learnt that while some of the bandits engaged policemen stationed at the main gate of the school in a shoot-out, some of the bandits scaled the school fence to gain entrance.

Some top officials of the school also revealed that the bandits first went to the staff quarters where they took the wife of a staff member who they later released. The bandits reportedly proceeded to the pupils’ hostel where they gathered the students together and marched them out of the school.

One of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “The pupils were being marched out of the school when troops of the Nigerian army arrived and engaged them in a fierce shoot-out. The development made some of the pupils to escape while the bandits left with some others. It was a very disturbing scenario.”

Parents who had their wards in the school continued to storm the school throughout Saturday to make enquiries about their children.

Punch