DHQ Denies Military Negotiating With Katsina Schoolboys Abductors

The Nigerian Military has stated that it was not in negotiation with the abductors of over 333 students of the Government Science Secondary School (GSSS) in Kankara, Katsina State.

The Coordinator, Defence Media Operation, Maj. Gen. John Enenche made this known while addressing newsmen at the Army headquarters in Abuja.

He stated that negotiating with kidnappers, bandits or terrorists was not part of the modus operandi of the Nigerian military.

General Enenche assured that the security forces would rescue the schoolboys from their abductors soon.

He stated: “I don’t know from history where the military or the armed forces go into negotiations when it comes to ransom and I don’t have any record.

“Nothing is connecting the armed forces with negotiation.

“If the governor believes in that as a father, he is seeing it in a larger perceptive.

“We are going on with our operations, and we don’t step down our kinetic operations for any reason at all.

“There is nowhere in the world where you stop your kinetic operation; it is a total package because purported negotiations are going on. It is not done.”

He also confirmed that the military had taken all the necessary briefs from other security agencies and the Katsina State government on the present condition of the abducted students, Daily Trust reports.

Citing latest information at the military disposal, Enenche said the GSSS students were still with the bandits unharmed.

He maintained non of the hostages is dead, adding that the armed forces were reviewing strategies to ensure their safe returns to their parents, noting that the military would continue its ongoing kinetic operations.

“Nobody is dead; we have not received anything that anybody is dead from the information that we have on the situation and then, the troops are on guard as it were.

“They have started patrolling the whole of that area which I will not give you the specifics to ensure that they are intact and that we rescue them alive, whichever way,” Enenche said.