Mixed feelings as bandits free 15 more Baptist students

It was both a joyous and sober moment for parents of 121 abducted students (male and female) of Bethel Baptist School, Damishi, Kaduna State, when they were reunited with 15 more students freed by bandits over the weekend.

While the parents of the 15 children who were released were thanking God, others whose children were still with the bandits felt disappointed but expressed hope that God would intervene in freeing the remaining 63 students from captivity.

The bandits broke into the school, located at Damishi, along the Kaduna-Kachia highway, Chikun Local Government Area of the state, in the early hours of July 5, and took away 121 students from their hostels.

The kidnappers had released 28 of the students on Sunday, July 25, after receiving N50 million ransom and later released a few others on health grounds, while some escaped on their own, making it a total of 56 freed so far.

The students, who were conveyed to the Baptist secretariat in an 18-seater bus, accompanied by their patients in two vehicles, could not hide their joy, as they sang praises in tears when they beheld their children after two months in captivity.

Handing the traumatized students over to their parents at Kaduna Baptist Conference Secretariat, along Ahmadu Bello Way, on Sunday, president of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, Rev. Israel Akanji, said the parents and concerned stakeholders had expected the release of all the abducted students and not just 15.

“We are grateful to God for the release of these 15 children. Although the number is smaller than what we expected because we had 78 out there, they have given us 15, which means 63 are yet to come but in everything,

“God said, we should give thanks, and we are grateful for what He has done.

“And we are trusting that the same God will help us to receive the remaining 63.”