On September 23, 2019, Governor El-Rufai had made a public show of his son’s enrolment in the school, saying he decided to enrol his son in a government primary school to lead by example and commit to the education sector in the state.
However, checks by SaharaReporters in March revealed that Abubakar El-Rufai, the seven-year-old son of Governor El-Rufai, had been absent from school.
SaharaReporters, after visiting the school premises in March 2021, established from pupils and teachers that young El-Rufai had not come to school since resumption amidst the rising insecurity and threats to the lives of schoolchildren.
Confirming the report in an interview with BBC Pidgin on Friday, El-Rufai said he got security reports that his son would be kidnapped to see if he would change his mind on paying the ransom.
He said, “We had to temporarily withdraw him because we received a security report that three groups were planning to attack the school and kidnap my son.”
He further said though the school is well protected, he withdrew his son from the school because he feared that an attack on the school could harm other children.
“I don’t think they (kidnappers) would have succeeded because there is enough security in the school to prevent them, but it would expose other pupils of the school to danger.
“We didn’t know the kind of weapon they would have brought. I had taken a stand against payment of ransom, and we had reported that three groups were planning to kidnap my son from Capital School to see whether I will pay the ransom or not if my son is kidnapped,” he added.
