We were ready to lose students in planned bandits’ bombardment – El-Rufai

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has revealed that when 29 students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna State, were abducted, the plan was to attack and kill the bandits even if it meant some students would die in the process.

The governor said this on Thursday during a webinar organised by the Africa Leadership Group.

He said Kaduna is currently at war and such would only be considered as collateral damage, a price he would be willing to pay instead of paying ransom.

The governor, however, stated that before this could be done, the bandits hurriedly changed location which led to the students spending over a month in captivity.

He said,

“Two days after the abduction of the Afaka young people, I was assured by the air force and the army that they knew where the kidnappers were with the students and they had encircled (them).

“We were going to attack them. We would lose a few students but we would kill all the bandits and we would recover some of the students. That was our plan. That was the plan of the air force and the army… But they slipped through the cordon of the army. That is why they were not attacked.

“We know it is risky, we know in the process we may lose some of the abductees but it is a price we have to pay. This is war, there will always be collateral damage in war and we will rather do that than pay money because paying money has not solved the problem anywhere in the world”