The Nasarawa State Police Command has debunked reports that pupils were kidnapped from Peter’s Foundation Secondary School, Rukubi, in Doma Local Government Area, saying the alarm was triggered after students mistook two hunters carrying guns for kidnappers.
This was revealed during a conversation between the media and the Police Command’s spokesperson, Ramhan Nansel, who described the circulating claims as false news.
Nansel also provided SaharaReporters with audio recordings of his conversation with the school proprietor.
In the audio, the proprietor categorically dismissed the kidnap claim, saying, “The claim that two pupils were kidnapped in my school is not true.”
He explained how the panic began, saying, “My students were on the field. And some of them saw two people armed with guns who are hunters. And they quickly ran to their teacher who told them to go back to their class.”
According to him, the misunderstanding escalated once the children returned indoors.
“On getting to the class, they started relating what they saw to their fellow students. That was how the false alarm started,” he said.
He added that the rumour quickly spread.
“The student kept spreading they saw kidnappers. And the news reached everywhere,” he said.
The police clarification comes after an earlier viral report of a suspected attack on the school on Friday morning.
Initial accounts from local sources claimed that armed men stormed the area, prompting panic as parents rushed into the school to evacuate their children.
A video posted by an X user, @AsakyGRN, also showed chaos on the school premises, with parents running frantically through the compound.
The user wrote: “Schools in Rukubi, Doma LGA of Nasarawa State have been shut down following an incident where unidentified men entered Peter’s Foundation Secondary School and took away some students.”
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