The parents had on Monday protested and given Kaduna State and the Federal Government 48 hours to rescue the students.

On Wednesday, the fears of the parents worsened as the students were neither released nor government briefed them on the latest development on the abductees.

“Our children barely dressed up when they were whisked away by the bandits. Some of them were injured when troops tried to stop the bandits from taking them away,” one of the parents stated.

Another parent said they were concerned that the students were staying too long with the bandits. He recalled that none of recently kidnapped students of other schools stayed this long with kidnappers.

He said abducted students of Government Science College, Kagara, Niger State, who were kidnapped on February 17, were released on February 27.

The parent added that 279 students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Jangede, Zamfara State, were released on March 2 after their February 26 abduction.

“We are becoming more apprehensive. We did not envisage that the abductors would keep them this long. It’s now almost two weeks they were taken away. Kagara and Jangede students were not kept as long as this,” he stated.

During Monday’s protest, Mr  Friday Sani, who spoke on behalf of the parents, said, “We are by this press conference demanding that the government  rescue  our children by all means  and within 48 hours so that the process of their rehabilitation can commence because the longer they stay in captivity the worse the situation will be.”

However, speaking to one of our correspondents, a parent said,  “The plan after the 48-hour-ultimatum given to both the state and federal governments was to resume the protest until our children are release by the bandits.

“But after we met with some prominent citizens, we were advised to shelve the planned protest for now and those we met so far, whom I don’t want to name,  promised to meet the governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, and talk to him on the matter.

“We are pleading with the authorities concerned  to see to the plights of our children. They should remember the conditions of  these students when they were abducted by the bandits. Almost all of them  were naked when the  bandits stormed  the school.  We want those in power to put themselves in our shoes.”

But the state government on Wednesday  remained mute over the  ultimatum.

The state Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Mr Samuel Aruwan , could not be reached on the telephone.

Also, as of the time of filing this report, he had yet to respond to a text message sent to his telephone.

Recall that the bandits, on  March 13 released a viral video where the students were seen crying and appealing to  government to pay the N500m  demanded by the bandits as ransom for their release.

Ogun gov orders security beef-up  in schools

Meanwhile, the  Ogun State  Governor, Dapo Abiodun,   on Wednesday, said  he had  approved the recruitment of security men to beef up security in all schools in the state.

Abiodun said this while addressing members of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Basic Education, led by its Chairman, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, who paid him a courtesy visit in Abeokuta, the state capital.

He said, “I  have approved recruitment of security men in all our schools because we do not want to be reactive on the issue of security. We want to ensure that not only our children are safe, but also their teachers.”

He disclosed that  about 600 schools would be rehabilitated across the state to further provide conducive environment for teaching and learning.

He added, “We are also in the process of awarding contracts for the construction of 60,000 furniture, so that our children can sit comfortably while learning.”

Earlier, chairman of the committee lauded the state for paying its 2018, 2019 and 2020 counterpart funds  and its effort to ensure quality, functional and technology-driven educational policy.

Amotekun  begins training in Ogun

In a related development, the Commander of Amotekun Corps in the state, retired Commissioner of Police, David Akinremi, on Wednesday,  said the government had commenced  training for  recruits for the security outfit.

Akinremi, who responded to a text sent to him,  said,  “The training of the first batch of our operatives is going on.  The formal inauguration by His Excellency, (Dapo Abiodun), will be done on the completion of our training.”

He, however,  kept mum when asked to specify  the duration of the training of the corps.