Six female Federal University of Gusau students who were kidnapped in the early hours of Friday have been freed by members of the combined task team operating under the codename Operation Hadarin-Daji.
Captain Ibrahim Yahaya, the task force’s information officer, verified this news over the phone to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday.
The rescue effort was in response to reports that an undisclosed number of female students had been kidnapped from their rented dorms at Sabon-Gida, a few meters from the university campus and outside the Zamfara State capital.
Yahaya claims that the Nigerian Air Force’s air component assisted the troops as they tracked the students’ kidnappers into the woodland and engaged them in a gunfight.
In addition, he said that other bandits had been defeated during the continuing rescue operation.
In addition, he added, “the troops also seized an AK-47, a magazine, four motorcycles, and a communication device from the terrorists.”
The school’s students staged a demonstration earlier in June to call attention to the recent wave of kidnappings that targeted their friends living in the Sabon-Gida and Damba areas.
The university’s main campus is across from the two settlements, and it is located about 20 kilometers from Gusau, the state capital.
