Security personnel comb Ikorodu for kidnapped girls

Increased presence of security personnel was noticeable in Agunfoye-Lugbusi Village near Ikorodu, Lagos State, on Wednesday, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

The heightened security comes as security operatives intensify the search for abductors of three female students of Babington Macaulay ‎Junior Seminary School, Ikorodu, kidnapped by gunmen from their school on Monday.

A NAN correspondent who visited the school on Wednesday reports that plain-clothed security men have bombadded the area while a contingent of the navy have also infiltrated the surrounding creeks in the manhunt for the abductors.

"The area is on 24-hour surveillance and we won't rest until the students are returned to their parents.

"We have also made contacts with other security agencies," Mr Bala Hassan, an Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) in charge of Zone 2, told NAN in Lagos.

The AIG, who is in charge of Lagos and Ogun States, said that security agents in the neighbouring states had also been contacted to secure all routes.

He assured that the police was closing in on the criminals.

"The CP has given the school authorities advice on how to beef up security around here.

"So far, we have gotten good information on the criminals and I can tell you that everything is on course.

"The deployments already made will not be changed and Ogun Police Command has also been alerted to properly secure all entries and exits.

"We are assuring the parents and school authorities that the girls will soon be back, that is all I can say for now," he said.

NAN reports that security agents from the police, Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Navy have been deployed in the area while armed patrol teams were sighted at bus stops leading to the school.

Rapid Response Squad (RRS) helicopters were also sighted carrying out surveillance air patrol of the creeks.