The Leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau has claimed responsibility for the abduction of about 333 students in Katsina State last week.
Shekau in an audiotape released on Tuesday said, “Our brothers were behind the abduction in Katsina,” Guardian reports.
A group of men wielding sophisticated rifles on Friday night invaded the all-boys Government Science secondary school in the town of Kankara, abducting over 300 students.
Recall that Boko Haram had in April 2014 abducted 276 girls from their school in Chibok, in north-eastern Borno State of which about 100 are yet to be released. The group has been involved in the kidnap of other schoolchildren and lots of people across the north-east and has recently expanded their tentacles.
The audio, however, lacked detail on the involvement of the group.
An eyewitness account from Samatu Aliyu who escaped and found his way back to Kankara after 36 hours, said the attackers marched them into the forest.
He said, “We walked from that night to the morning in the forest without shoes. Most of us had feet that were bleeding and there was nothing to eat. We only drank muddy water, and at some point, they left me behind and turned away, and so I ran and walked back alone,” Aliyu said.
Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, who is from Katsina, condemned the “cowardly … attack on innocent children”.