Some of the victims of the multiple bandits’ attacks which took place last year on schools have been impregnated.
According to UNICEF, a total of 1,440 students were abducted across 25 Nigerian schools in 2021.
On June 17, 2021, gunmen loyal to a bandit kingpin, Dogo Gide, ransacked the Federal Government College, Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State, and left with dozens of students and five teachers.
Weeks after the incident, the bandits contacted the students’ parents, saying their daughters had been married off while sending some parents footages of their already married daughters.
However, according to sources, about 13 of the female students were married off to bandits, and a few interested persons living in villages around areas controlled by Gide, along the boundary between Niger and Zamfara states with some of them already pregnant.
Further revealing, the source stated that three more schoolgirls were released to their parents in mid-January, with all of them coming back pregnant. Eleven are still there; 10 girls who are married and one boy.
The bandits’ kingpin is holding on to the students despite receiving huge amounts in ransom and two of his men freed as part of negotiations in October.
The Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba while speaking during the national campaign on out-of-school children in Birnin Kebbi, the Kebbi State capital in late January, confirmed that 14 of the students were still in captivity.
Also, according to the Special Adviser on Security to Kebbi State Governor, Garba Rabiu Kamba who spoke to reporters, there were 14 students yet to be released by the bandits.
