CAPE TOWN - Nigerian kidnappers have freed 15 students who were kidnapped from the Bethel Baptist High School in Kaduna State in north-west Nigeria in July after the students' families paid a ransom to the bandits to secure their release.
According to local media reports late on Sunday, the chairman of the Kaduna State Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Reverend Joseph Hayab, confirmed that the 15 students were released on Sunday night by the bandits.
Authorities said that the amount paid to the kidnappers could not be disclosed.
According to the news website The Nation Online Nigeria.net, bandits broke into the high school in the early hours of July 5, 2021, and kidnapped 121 boarding students.
The report further revealed that the kidnappers released 28 of the students on July 25, twenty days after the initial kidnapping, after receiving N50 million ransom (about US$120,000).
Bandits have terrorised Kaduna State and other parts of Nigeria in recent months, with just over 1,000 students having been kidnapped since December 2020.
News outlet Voice of America reported that 56 of the kidnapped Bethel students have to date been released or escaped from their abductors, while 65 remain captive.
In a separate incident, the Guardian Nigerian reported on Monday that the Lagos State Police Command has arrested two male suspects for kidnapping an 8-year-old boy, Daniel Chukwudi, in Ipaja area, Lagos State.
Daniel was abducted on July 11.
According to authorities in Lagos State, a ransom of N2.5 million was requested after 24 hours of the boy’s abduction.
ANA