(Corrects pronoun in paragraph to 'he', not 'she')
* Resident reports hearing gunshots
* Around 30 students kidnapped, students say
* Fourth such abduction since December
By Garba Muhammad
KADUNA, Nigeria, March 12 (Reuters) - Gunmen in northwest
Nigeria kidnapped around 30 students overnight from a forestry
college near a military academy, three students said on Friday,
in the fourth mass school abduction since December.
The Federal College of Forestry Mechanization sits on the
outskirts of Kaduna city, capital of Kaduna state, in a region
roamed by armed gangs, who often travel on motorcycles.
Kaduna state's security commissioner, Samuel Aruwan,
confirmed the attack but did not say how many students had been
taken.
Sani Danjuma, a student at the college, said those abducted
were all female students, but authorities were unable to confirm
this. Other students said some of the young women had managed to
escape during the attack.
Local resident Haruna Salisu, speaking by phone, said he had
heard sporadic gunshots at around 11:30 p.m.
"We were not panicking, thinking that it was a normal
military exercise being conducted at the Nigerian Defence
Academy," he said.
"We came out for dawn prayers, at 5:20 a.m., and saw some of
the students, teachers and security personnel all over the
school premises. They told us that gunmen raided the school and
abducted some of the students."
Salisu said he had seen military personnel taking the
remaining students into the academy.
On Friday morning, relatives of students gathered at the
gates of the college, which was surrounded by around 20 army
trucks.
LAWLESS REGION
Banditry has festered for years in northwest Nigeria,
rendering large swathes of the region lawless.
The trend of abduction from boarding schools was started by
the jihadist group Boko Haram, which seized 270 schoolgirls from
a school at Chibok in the northeast in 2014, around 100 of whom
have never been found.
It has since been taken up by armed criminal gangs seeking
ransom.
Within the last few weeks, 279 schoolgirls were freed after
being abducted from their boarding school at Jangebe in
northwest Nigeria's Zamfara state, and 27 teenage boys were
released after being kidnapped from their school in the
north-central state of Niger, along with three staff and 12
family members. One student was shot dead in that attack.
Military and police attempts to tackle the gangs have had
little success, while many worry that state authorities are
making the situation worse by letting kidnappers go unpunished,
paying them off or, as in Zamfara, giving them amenities.
In late February, the presidency said President Muhammadu
Buhari had urged state governments to "review their policy of
rewarding bandits with money and vehicles, warning that the
policy might boomerang disastrously".
The unrest has become a political problem for Buhari, a
retired general and former military ruler who has faced mounting
criticism over the rise in violent crime, and replaced his
long-standing military chiefs in February.
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FACTBOX-The violence and insecurity affecting Nigeria
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