Operatives of the Joint Task Force, Operation Hadarin-Daji, have rescued six female students of Federal University, Gusau, Zamfara, abducted in the early hours of Friday.
Force Information Officer, Operation Hadarin-Daji, Cpt. Ibrahim Yahaya, confirmed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) via telephone on Friday in Gusau.
NAN reports that the rescue operation followed the abduction of an unspecified number of female students from their rented hostels at Sabon-Gida which is few meters away from the university.
Yahaya said that the troops pursued the abductors who took the students, mostly females, to the forest.
He said that the troops engaged the abductors in a gun duel, supported by the air component of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), and rescued six of the students.
Yahaya further stated that several bandits were neutralised during the rescue effort which, he said, was still ongoing.
“The troops also recovered one AK-47, a magazine, four motorcycles and one communication gadget from the terrorists,” the officer said.
NN reports that the institution’s students had, in June, protested the spate of abductions of their schoolmates residing in Sabon-Gida and Damba communities.
NAN also reports that the two communities are opposite the main campus of the university, which is about 20km from Gusau, the state capital.
Efforts to speak with the school authorities on the incident proved abortive, as the institution’s Spokesperson, Umar Usman, did not respond to several calls put through to him by a NAN correspondent.