Unic Press UK: About 300 students of the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, have regained freedom after being released by their captors Boko Haram.
In a statement, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity, Garba Shehu, said that President Muhammadu Buhari welcomes the release of kidnapped students, describing their safe return as a big respite for many families, Nigerians and the international community.
Buhari praise the collaboration between Katsina State Government and the Nigerian military, Police, and the entire intelligence agencies.
The students’ were kidnapped on Friday, 11 December, in the school premises, with Boko Haram terrorist group claiming responsibility.
About the Boko Haram
- Boko Haram is also known as the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
- Jama’atu Ahl as‐Sunnah li‐Da’awati wal‐Jihad [simply called Boko Haram] is a Jihad-driven terrorist organisation that was founded in 2002 by one Mohammed Yusuf. This terror group held the belief that Western education/lifestyles were completely against the teachings of Islam.
- M Yusuf, the founder/spiritual head of Boko Haram was ‘extrajudicially’ executed in 2009 after the group clashed with Nigerian Police Forces in 2009.
- The end of Yusuf’s earthly life in the hands of Nigerian security operatives is widely seen as a critical turning point in the history of the Boko Haram. Many have argued that the killing of Yusuf further radicalized his followers, thereby escalating a bad crisis.
- It was after the killing of Yusuf that this terror group commenced full military operations in 2009.
- They have attacked a number of places, including military barracks, police stations, churches, mosques, motor park stations, United Nations building in Nigeria’s federal capital territory, and so on.
- In 2015, Boko Haram pledged allegiance to Daesh (Islamic State).
- Boko Haram’s goals center on Islamization of Nigeria, to enforce sharia law throughout the gamut of Nigeria. This goal is utter delusion as Nigeria is a secular state, a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural country of circa 200 million people. More than 50% of Nigeria’s population are Christians, most of whom reside in the southern part of the country.
- Abubukar Shekau, an eccentric character who appears deluded by virtue of his utterances in Boko Haram’s numerous videos, is the head of the main group. This is one man the Nigerian security forces had claimed several times to have killed, but each time the news of his death circulates, the man Shekau rises from nowhere proclaiming to the world that he is still alive.
