One of the 25 schoolgirls abducted in Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, Kebbi State, has escaped from captivity.

The school Principal, Musa Magaji, disclosed this to The Associated Press on Tuesday.

“One is part of the 25 abducted (and) the other one returned earlier,” Mr Magaji said. “They are safe and sound.”

This reduces the number of girls in captivity to 24. Security operatives, including the police and Nigerian military, have been deployed to rescue other girls in captivity.

President Bola Tinubu, in a statement by the minister of information and national orientation, Mohammed Idris, on Monday, vowed to rescue the abducted schoolgirls.

According to the police, a gang of armed bandits with sophisticated weapons, shooting indiscriminately, stormed the school and abducted 25 schoolgirls and killed the vice principal.

The police said “The police tactical units deployed in the school engaged them in a gun duel. Unfortunately, the suspected bandits had already scaled through the fence of the school and abducted twenty-five students from their hostel to an unknown destination. Similarly, one Hassan Makuku ‘m’ was shot dead while Ali Shehu ‘m’ sustained injury in his right hand.”

The Kebbi schoolgirls kidnapping followed over a decade after over 270 girls were abducted from their dormitory in Chibok, Borno State, in 2014. Similarly in 2018, over 100 schoolgirls were abducted in Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State.