The Kebbi State Police Command have dispelled reports that the vehicle used by bandits to convey abducted teachers and students of the Federal Government College (FGC), Birnin Yauri, Ngaski LGA, is a police van.

The police, in a statement made available to Peoples Gazette on Friday by spokesman Nafi’u Abubakar, said the vehicle belonged to a Kebbi State High Court judge.

Bandits in police uniform on Thursday, stormed the school in a Hilux van, shot dead a police officer, abducted five teachers (four male and one female) and an undisclosed number of female students from the school’s female hostel with one student hospitalised following a gunshot wound.

However, clearing the air about the said van, the police in the release said: “The white Hilux van with registration No. KBSJ 29, belonging to a High Court Judge, with inscription of Kebbi State Judiciary, hijacked by the bandits along Birnin Yauri road, was the one used in perpetrating the dastardly act and not the police vehicle as stated by some media stations.”

The spokesman who also confirmed the abduction to The Gazette on Thursday further disclosed that “we have deployed our men to guard the school to avoid an invasion. 

A combined team of mobile policemen, the kidnapping section from the state CID, Counter Terrorism, and the vigilante group have been dispatched to the nearby forest and they are right now combining the forest with the aim of rescuing the victims unhurt and arrest the perpetrators.”

The police in a previous statement on Thursday, asked the residents to supply it “with prompt information that would aid in solving the crime and apprehending the criminals.” 

“The Command will do everything within its powers to ensure that the abducted persons are safely reunited with their families and perpetrators brought to book,” the police assured.