Nigeria’s Boko Haram jihadist rebels have claimed responsibility for the abduction of hundreds of students in an attack on a boys school in northern Katsina State, a Nigerian online newspaper says.
More than 330 students are missing from the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara after gunmen with assault rifles attacked their school Friday night.
The Daily Nigerian said it received an audio message from Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau saying that his group abducted the schoolboys because Western education is against the tenets of Islam.
“What happened in Katsina was done to promote Islam and discourage un-Islamic practices as Western education is not the type of education permitted by Allah and his Holy Prophet,” the paper quoted Shekau as saying.
There has been no independent verification of the audio message but Shekau has in the past released video and audio messages on Boko Haram’s behalf.
Nigerian presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said in a statement Monday that “the kidnappers had made contact and discussions were already on, pertaining to the safety and return” of the children to their homes.