In a statement, Samuel Aruwan, commissioner of the Ministry of Homeland Security and Home Affairs in Kaduna, said 180 students were rescued by soldiers involving the armed bandits.
‘The troops successfully rescued 180 civilians; ’42 female students, eight staff and 130 male students … about 30 students, a mix of men and women, have yet to be accounted for,’ the statement read.
However, some of the students told a different story. Ezra Jona, 25, told CNN the kidnappers left the site long before the soldiers arrived.
“The bandits were already gone when the soldiers came to save us. They evacuated us to their barracks. I was very confused and scared,” Jonah said.
Daniel Atep 24, remembers jumping over a fence to get away from the kidnappers.
“We kept running while we heard the sound of gunshots and hid in the woods,” he told CNN.
“Later when the bandits left, we saw soldiers searching in the woods and we came out. There were about 11 of us, and they took us to the school and then to their barracks.”
Zainab Umar, 24, told CNN one of her classmates is among the missing students.
“They first attacked the boys’ residence … then they told one of them to lead them to our residence. When they got there, they told him to lie down and put a gun to his head and shouted that everyone must come out. “
Umar recalls that some of the female students pleaded with the attackers to allow them to put on clothes. Some were allowed to do so, but others were taken away undone, she said.
Umar said she could not escape the prison by hiding under the bed as there was a power outage.
“They did not see us because NEPA (local power provider) took the light. They came back a few minutes later and said, ‘we are soldiers, come out.’ Some of the girls went out and took them away. ‘
“They were gone before the real soldiers arrived,” she added.
CNN could not reach Aruwan to comment on the students’ version of events.
The co-educational Federal College of Forestry and Mechanization is a higher education institution located in Afaka, a forest community near Nigeria’s Defense Academy.
Students are on average between 19 and 25 years old and specialize in agricultural studies.
This kidnapping is the latest in a series of similar kidnapping cases. More than 300 schoolgirls were abducted earlier this month from a school in the state of Zamfara, also in northwestern Nigeria.
Kidnapping for ransom is rampant in parts of Nigeria and has become a major security challenge. State governors regularly pay ransoms to secure the safety of victims, but rarely admit that they do.