UPDATE: 2 Students Reportedly Rescued After Gunmen Invaded Igbo Nla College In Lagos

Yesterday, news broke that some unknown gunmen suspected to be militants invaded Igbo Nla Model College in Epe, Lagos and abducted some victims (read here).

PUNCH Metro learnt that six victims were abducted – the Vice-Principal, Mr. A.O. Oyesola, the English Language/Civil Education teacher, Mr. Lukman Oyerinde, and four Junior Secondary School 1 students. Two of the pupils were identified as 10-year-old Isaac Adebisi and one Okonkwo.

The police spokesperson in Lagos State, Bisi Kolawole, told Premium Times that two of the students who were abducted have now been rescued, leaving two more students, a teacher and the school principal.

“We’re still on their trail to rescue the others who include the principal, a teacher and two students,” Ms. Kolawole said.

Giving accounts of how the incident happened, a JSS 1 student, who identified himself only as Saheed, said the abductors came through the waterways and entered the school through a gate behind the boys’ hostel, close to the assembly hall.

”We usually do our assembly in a hall. The senior school in the second hall had already dispersed. We were saying the closing prayer when we saw the gunmen. They wore red and blue vests.

They shot into the air. Some of us ran inside the bush. The abductors were six persons. They began to shout ‘move, move, move’ as they led our vice-principal, teacher and the four pupils away.”

Speaking with Mr. Oluwafemi Adebisi, the father of one of the abducted pupils, Isaac, he said he was hopeful that his son would return home safely, Punch reports.

”Tuesday was my first day in the school. I brought my son on that day when they resumed from the public holiday. The abductors came and disrupted the assembly. Their teachers called the attendance list after the abductors left and he was nowhere to be found.

None of the pupils clearly saw him leaving with them because of the tension. The school authorities have met us and assured that they would find the children. I believe God that my son will be found because he is a promised child,” he said hopefully.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, said the police were working with other security agencies to rescue the victims.

Owoseni, who visited the school, said, ”The police recorded a case of abduction in the school. The vice-principal, a teacher, and six pupils were taken away by gunmen who came in a speedboat. The police mobilised to the area and were able to rescue two of the pupils. The rescue mission is ongoing. The Marine Police, helicopters, the navy, and the Department of State Services are all involved in the operation.”