Three students abducted from their university in northwestern Nigeria earlier this week have been found dead, according to a local official.
The killings announced on Friday were an escalation in the mass kidnappings across northern Nigeria carried out by criminal gangs known locally as bandits.
Gunmen attacked the private Greenfield University in Kaduna state on Tuesday, killing one staff member and taking an unknown number of students. It was the fifth known attack on a school or college since December 2020.
“In an act of mindless evil and sheer wickedness, the armed bandits who kidnapped students of Greenfield University have shot dead three of the abducted students,” Samuel Aruwan, Kaduna state’s internal security and home affairs commissioner, said in a statement.
The remains of the students were found in a village close to the university, he added.
Two university staff told AFP news agency that 20 students along with three non-academic staff were kidnapped but state officials could not confirm those numbers.