The bandits that kidnapped 15 Qur’anic students in Sokoto State have established contact with their families, demanding N20 million before releasing them.

The proprietor of the school, Liman Abubakar confirmed this development in a telephone conversation with our correspondent on Tuesday.

Freelanews reports that the said students were abducted by bandits who raided Gidan Bakuso village in the Gada Local Government area in the early hours of Saturday.

Abubakar said the bandits called him and requested for N20 million for the students to be freed.

He said, “They (the bandits) called me this morning around 11 am and directed me to meet our village head and tell him to raise N20 million for the children.

“I went and discussed the matter with the village head but we are yet to conclude.”

Meanwhile, the state Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Ahmed Rufai, said the command was still working on the release of the students.

“We are still searching the surrounding villages and forest to get the exact location of where the kids are being held.

“We are on it and hopefully we will get them rescued,” he added.

Freelanews reported that the threats of clampdown on bandits and terrorists abducting schoolchildren seem to have little or no effect on the terrorists as 15 pupils of an Islamiya school in Sokoto State were kidnapped in the early hours of Saturday.

This comes after Thursday’s abduction of 287 schoolchildren in Kaduna State. On Wednesday, over 200 Internally Displaced Persons were kidnapped from their camp in Borno State.

Reacting to the incidents, President Bola Tinubu ordered security agents to secure the immediate rescue of all the abducted people.