One week after they breathed air of freedom from a den of bandits in their home state after being ferociously seized from their school, 344 students of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, are still being haunted by their terrifying experience.
Though back home to the tight grip of their parents’ bosom, they are still consumed in imagination of the events of the ill-fated day and how they were effortlessly whisked away by their abductors at about 11pm on Thursday, December 17.
While in captivity, they were at a loss on their immediate environment for the period of their ordeal. Neither the victims nor their parents could put a face to the henchman behind their plight or where they were held captive.
But emerging revelations seem to be clearing the fog over the kidnap saga. Auwalu Daudawa Mawuli’s name may not have a place in the famous Guinness Book of Records. But his name now rings bell in the security community and the underworld.
However, not much is known about him, except for the fact that he is the leader of the armed bandits who ferried the 344 abducted students from Dinya village in Danmusa Local Government Area of Katsina State where they were held captive after their abduction, to Yanwaren Daji village in Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State, where they were eventually released to the national chairman of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Alhaji Muhammadu Hardon Zuru.
Scudnews can also report that after receiving the abducted students from Auwalu Mawuli, the dreaded leader of the bandits, the MACBAN chairman in company with other officials of the group and chairman of Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State, evacuated the victims to Tsafe town.
It was further learnt that on arrival at Tsafe town on Friday, December 18, the 344 students and the Miyetti Allah team of negotiators were received by the state commissioner of police as well as top officers of the military and other security agencies, who conveyed the students to the headquarters of Operation Hadarin Daji in Gusau, the state capital, from where they were transported to Kastina for a formal handover of the victims to the state governor, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari.
Unconfirmed reports indicated that an unspecified but huge sum of money was paid as ransom to the bandits for the release of the students. However, to be sure, Auwalu, with a display of professional dexterity in his ignoble trade appears to be like the proverbial cat with nine lives as he walks a free man, several poles apart from the long arms of the law.
