Six out of the 137 rescued schoolchildren of the Government Secondary School, Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, were said to have been hospitalised at the Army medical facility, Dallet Barracks, Kawo, Kaduna.

The General Officer Commanding 1 Division, Major-Gen. Mayirenso Saraso, made this known while presenting the rescued schoolchildren to Governor Uba Sani at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim Government House in the state capital on Monday.

The GOC said those currently receiving medical attention at their facility are five females and one male student.

He said that as soon as they are medically fit, they would be handed over to the state government.

This was as the state governor, Sani cautioned those he described as “merchants of conflicts” over the wrong permutation on how the 137 schoolchildren were rescued by the Army.

The governor also warned against politicising issues of security, noting that doing so would endanger the lives and property of Nigerians.

“He ensured that the security should return our children home safely. I want to thank the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, for his able leadership and all the service chiefs and all security agencies for their respective contributions and organised efforts.

“I want to appreciate many Nigerians who prayed day and night for the release of the children, and today, God has answered our prayers.

“I also want to caution insecurity merchants and conflict merchants in Nigeria to be cautious with their utterances because, before the release of our children, a lot of people have been coming with a lot of permutation about how these children were released and what happened.

“The important thing for us in Kaduna is that the children are here with us. This is more important. As a government, it is to protect the life and property of our citizens.

“And under my government, the Kaduna State will continue to prioritise our security because security is the number one agenda of our government.

“We should not politicise the issue of insecurity in Nigeria. It is not good to undermine the efforts of security agencies in Nigeria.

“I want to caution the media and some elements in the society about the permutation of the school children, in my own opinion it is just to celebrate their release.

“We are all happy because we had 16 days of sleepless nights, but today we are happy the children are back and I want to emphasise that we will continue to make security efforts so that all our Local Government Areas(LGAs) and Communities are saved,” he added. (The PUNCH)

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