Parents withdraw wards as gunmen attack Abuja school

• No child abducted, snatched bus recovered –FCTA

 From FRED ITUA, AbujaSome unknown gunmen, yesterday morning stormed a private school in Nyanya, scene of the recent bombings in the nation’s capital. The rational behind the early morning attack on the school was also unclear.

Eyewitnesses told Daily Sun that the incident happened at Vine International Academy School. The eyewitnesses, in their separate accounts, said the daredevil gunmen launched the attack at about 8am.

Some of the eyewitnesses said the gunmen launched the attack in an apparent move to abduct some of the pupils.

“From what I saw from a distance, I think those guys wanted to kidnap some of the pupils and then demand for a ransom,” one of the eyewitnesses who did not want his name published told Daily Sun.

“This sort of thing is strange in Abuja here and I do not know why these heartless gunmen are after Nyanya where the poor and ordinary people live. This nonsense must stop now,” another eyewitness said.

It was gathered that no pupil of the school was hurt or kidnapped in the attack, but the gunmen made away with the school bus. “No pupil was inside the bus when the gunmen came. So, they angrily snatched the bus,” an unnamed official of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) told Daily Sun.

Meanwhile, parents of the pupils have besieged the school to take their wards away. With the recent bombings within the area, the parents were not leaving anything to chance since earlier reports had indicated that the gunmen were members of the Boko Haram sect.

The FCT administration had said no child was abducted at Nyanya or any other part of the FCT, contrary to reports in a section of the social media.

“What happened was that at about 7am on Tuesday, some armed men snatched one of the school buses of Divine International Academy, Nyanya. However, all the children had disembarked and were safely in the school premises when the incident occurred.

“The snatched bus was recovered later in the afternoon of the same day at Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital. Two men found in the bus were promptly arrested by security agencies,” FCT administration clarified.

FCT Secretary of Education, Mallam Kabir Usman, said relevant security agencies were immediately contacted and the school premises were secured. Security already in place in other school premises were similarly enhanced as security agencies launched investigation into the incident.

Culled from Daily Sun