The leader of the Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, has said that his men abducted over 300 students of the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara local government area of Katsina State to discourage Western education in Nigeria, as well as to promote Islam.
In an audio message he posted on SoundCloud today, December 15, Shekau said that the “government was not teaching the pupils what Allah and his Holy Prophet Muhammed commanded,” and that they will continue to abduct students in different schools to show their condemnation of Western education.
Shekau added that “un-Islamic practices such as Western education” in the country must be abolished as that has been one of the cardinal campaigns against the Nigerian government.
“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 Muhammed,” the terrorist leader said in the audio message.
“The government is promoting Western education and they are also not teaching what Allah and his Holy Prophet commanded. They are rather destroying Islam. It may be subtle, but Allah, the Lord of the skies and earth, knows whatever is hidden. May Allah promote Islam. May we die as Muslims. In a nutshell, we are behind what happened in Katsina.”
On Friday, December 11, gunmen had stormed the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara local government area of Katsina State on motorcycles, shooting sporadically and abducted the students in their hostels.
Though there have been conflicting figures in respect of the actual number of students taken away by the kidnappers, the state Governor, Aminu Bello Masari said about 333 students were kidnapped, but the Presidency through Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, countered the number, insisting that only 10 students were abducted.
