By Zubairu Idris
The Minister of Defence, retired Maj.-Gen. Bashir Salihi-Magashi, has given an assurance that the abducted students of the Government Science Secondary School,Kankara, Katsina State, will be rescued soon.
Salihi-Magashi gave the assurance on Sunday in Katsina when he led a Federal Government delegation to Gov. Aminu Masari on a sympathy visit.
He said that security agents were working hard to ensure that the students were rescued.
“So far, we have been briefed by the Police Commissioner, GOC, Brigade Commander, Air Commander, DSS, and other security officers.
” Our interest is to keep ourselves abreast with what actually happened two days ago and we believe with their briefings, this task is going to be simple for us.
” We have strategies and I believe we can do it without any collateral damage to the people of Katsina State.
“We have the intelligence, the information, their whereabouts, their movements and their methods of operations.
“The task is easy for the armed forces and the police.
” The only thing is that we need prayers from you so that there will be no collateral damage in the event of being hostile.
“We assure you that all hands are on deck,” he said.
In his remarks, Masari said that the school has a population of 839 students.
He said that the state government was still searching for some of the missing students.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that members of the delegation included the National Security Adviser, retired Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno and the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin.
Also in the delegation were the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar, Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas and the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar.
Others were the Director General of the Department of State Services, Yusuf Magaji-Bichi and Director-General, National Intelligence Agency, Ahmed Rufai.
NAN reports that some students of the boarding school were kidnapped on Friday night by gunmen.
