Terrorists Kidnap Final-Year Student Of Nigeria’s Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Others In Zamfara

Mansur Garba, a 500-level student of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, has been abducted.

The student and some yet-to-be-identified people were abducted on Wednesday by gunmen suspected to be terrorists in Zamfara, northwest Nigeria.

SaharaReporters learned that the abduction happened on the highway leading to Gusau, Zamfara State capital when the terrorists stopped a car carrying no fewer than six passengers, including Mansur Garba. The vehicle was going from Sokoto to Gusua.

The gunmen kidnapped the passengers and took them to an unknown location.

A friend of Mansur who confirmed this to SaharaReproters on Friday morning revealed that his family announced the message about Mansur’s abduction on Thursday evening.

The undergraduate is in the middle of his final school examination and if he is not released by the terrorists before Saturday, he will automatically miss his next examination and this will affect his graduation this year.

“He was taking his final exam but because there were three to four days to his next paper, he decided to come home to attend to something very urgent.

“He boarded a commercial car and it was on their way that they met the bandits. He was among those who were kidnapped that day. We are yet to know his location,” the friend said.

“What we hear is that he was not the only one abducted because he was not the only one in that car. But we are yet to know the exact numbers of the passengers with the bandits currently,” Mansur Garba’s friend added.

At the time of publication, the State Police Public Relations Officer, Yezid Abubakar, was unavailable for comment.

He did not return numerous phone calls from SaharaReporters and did not reply to SMSes and WhatsApp messages sent to him.

Abduction of university students and even pupils for ransom has since taken a dangerous turn in Nigeria in recent times as SaharaReporters had reported a series of incidents where terrorists invaded their hostels and schools to abduct them, particularly in the northern region of the country.

Earlier this month, SaharaReporters reported how terrorists invaded a private hostel named Confidence Lodge in Gandu community and kidnapped some students of the Federal University of Lafia, Nasarawa State.

These students were rescued a few days later.

In October, SaharaReporters also reported how the terrorists invaded the hostel of the federal university in Dutsin-Ma in Katsina State, abducting at least five female students of the university.

SaharaReporters had gathered further that three of the abducted students hailed from Kwara State, one is from Kano and another is from Niger State.

The students from Kwara are Muhammad Fatima, Bello Fatima Zara and Adam Rahmatallahi.

SaharaReporters in September also reported how some gunmen suspected to be terrorists kidnapped some students of Federal University Gusau in Zamfara State.

The gunmen invaded the students’ residence at Sabon-Gida identified as Nazeer Sabon-Gida and took away some female students of the school, whose number could not be ascertained.

A few hours later, the Nigerian Army announced that it had rescued six of the students after a gun battle with the terrorists.