Gunmen attack Kaduna school, steal NECO exam papers

Gunmen suspected to be armed robbers on Friday attacked Government Secondary School, Unguwar Sarki, in the heart of Kaduna metropolis when SS3 students were about to write their NECO examination and carted question papers.

Eye witnesses told our correspondent that the masked  gunmen had trailed the NECO official from a commercial bank where she collected the papers, to the school.

The supervisor’s explanation that it was question papers meant for final year students who were writing NECO fell on deaf ears as the attackers grabbed the packaged papers.

“They snatched the wrapped examination papers and answer sheets and left,” Abdullah Mohammed, one of the students said.

Principal of the school, Hajiya Bilkisu Aliyu, also confirmed in an interview with journalists, that the gunmen trailed the NECO supervisor from a commercial bank along Alkali Road where she had gone to collect the exam questions and answer sheets.

According to her, “The robbers thought what she collected from the bank was money, they demanded she hand over the bulk of the wrapped papers to them and threatened to shoot her.

“They were told it was not money but they would not listen. They snatched the papers and disappeared into thin air,” she said.

Meanwhile, a parent, Sanusi Umar, whose child was among those writing the senior exams, said: “What we heard initially was bandits had come to kidnap our children. So, hundreds of parents stormed the school. However, on getting to the school, we were told it was armed robbers that came to take away the wrapped examination papers thinking it was money.

“I want to call on the government and security agencies to beef up security in schools since these criminals are now targeting our schools.”

It was gathered that the school and NECO staff had to mobilise exam papers from other centres to enable the students to write the affected papers under strict security surveillance.