SCHOOL HOSTAGES FREED

KATSINA: Nigerian gunmen have freed the remaining pupils from the more than 100 who were kidnapped from an Islamic seminary in northwestern Niger State nearly three months ago, the school’s head teacher has said.

Heavily armed criminals snatched 136 pupils from the seminary in Tegina on May 30 in one of a series of mass abductions targeting schools and colleges in Nigeria.

Six of the students died in captivity and another 15 managed to escape in June, according to school officials.

“The pupils have all been released. We are now conveying them home,” the teacher, Abubakar Alhassan, said.

“I can’t give you an exact number now. We will have to screen them when we get them home. But none of the pupils is in captivity.”

Criminal gangs have been kidnapping schoolchildren to extort ransom payments.