JUST IN: Buhari Speaks On Release of Jangebe Schoolgirls

President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed happiness over the release of the female students abducted from the Government Girls Secondary School in Jangebe, Zamfara State last Friday.

Naija News reports that the 279 schoolgirls were released around 4:00 a.m. on Tuesday after been held in captivity for four days.

The media aide to Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara, Yusuf Idris, said the schoolgirls are currently at the Zamfara government house waiting to be reunited with their parents.

But in a statement on Tuesday morning by the presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, the President said he was excited that their ordeal came to a happy end without any incident.

Buhari said: “I join the families and people of Zamfara State in welcoming and celebrating the release of these traumatized female students.

“Being held in captivity is an agonizing experience not only for the victims but also their families and all of us.”

However, while celebrating the release of the students, the President called for greater vigilance by the people so that human intelligence could be collected early enough to nip the bandits’ plans in the bud.

The President said the time has come to reverse, completely, the “grim and heartbreaking incidents of kidnapping”.

Buhari also warned that “ransom payments will continue to prosper kidnapping” while asking the police and the military to go after the kidnappers and bring them to justice.

Recall that the President had warned that his administration would not “succumb to blackmail by bandits who target innocent school students in the expectations of huge ransom payments”.

“Let them not entertain any illusions that they are more powerful than the government. They shouldn’t mistake our restraint for the humanitarian goals of protecting innocent lives as a weakness or a sign of fear or irresolution,” Buhari had said.