Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna has disclosed that the teacher who was kidnapped alongside pupils of the Government Secondary and Primary Schools, Kuriga 1, Chikun LGA of the state, did not make it back alive.
Recall that in Sunday, the state government and the Defence Headquarters had announced the release of the students who were abducted on March 7.
The defence headquarters, in a statement issued by the director of Defence Media Operations, Edward Buba, said the 137 victims were rescued in Zamfara State through the joint efforts of the military and local authorities.
Speaking during an interview with Channels Television, Mr Sani said the schoolchildren were already in Kaduna and “in high spirits”.
He also expressed sadness over the death of the school teacher, saying: “Sadly, one person has not returned, and that is the teacher. That is the fact of the matter, but all 137 children are safely back.
“We had an unfortunate incident where a teacher couldn’t make it. He had some complications, he was sick.
“That was the report we got from the military, but the rest of the children—all of them are back home safely; they are with us.”
The governor also insisted that the number of pupils abducted was 137, not 287 as widely reported.
He said,: “I don’t want to join issues with anyone in terms of numbers. What is more important to me is the safe return of the children.
“Today, I am happy that they are back safely, in high spirits, but those numbers were just figments of some people’s imagination,” the governor stated.
“Today, I met with the families of the children, and they confirmed to me that the numbers given by the military are the correct numbers,” he added, describing the “287” as works of propagandists.
