Governor Nasir El-Rufai has reportedly disclosed that their rescue plan after the abduction of 29 students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka in Kaduna State, was to bombard the bandits’ hideout, lose a few students and kill all the bandits.
El-Rufai disclosed this on Thursday, May 6, during a webinar organised by the Africa Leadership Group.
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.”
El-Rufai admitted that he had “lost weight” over the insecurity in Kaduna State, which he said was giving him sleepless nights; however, he claimed that Kaduna’s insecurity was not as bad as Niger Katsina and Zamfara.