“They took us to the forest, we walked for two days without eating anything and they beat us,” Murtala Sale, 14, told CNN.
“Some [of us] we felt bad because we had not eaten for two days, they selected the sick and fed them, “he added.
The children, many in blankets and covered in dust, arrived in heavily guarded buses before disembarking and walking barefoot across palm trees in the building named after Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.
The boys were silent in front of the microphones in a theater while Masari was talking to the press.
“I will also take this opportunity to praise and thank the efforts of the entire security apparatus,” he said. “Parents, I think we should thank Allah for His mercy, we have never given up hope.”
It was a memorable day for the state and for the boys, he added, suggesting that the abduction should be part of their “history” and “journey to adulthood.”
A 13-year-old boy named Jamilu Suleiman said the kidnappers took the boys to a forest, where they spent days walking.
“They usually give the little children weapons and sticks to beat us just to display and satisfy their price. They gave us bread, a single peanut cake, for the whole day,” he added.
Ashiru Malumfashi, the father of one of the abducted children, said he was traumatized by the abduction and the condition of the children.
“But the way the government has expressed its concern in this regard, we thank them and hope that we will not see this again.”
“We can’t quantify the level of trauma we’ve been through,” another parent told CNN outside the state house. “My son’s name is Ali Buhari … I’m not sending him back, I’m not sending him back [to school]. ”
Masari’s spokesman, Abdu Labaran, told CNN on Thursday that Boko Haram is not involved, but rather the boys were abducted by bandits who turned into the Islamist terrorist group.
CNN failed to independently verify this.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari welcomed the news in a statement posted on Twitter, saying: “This is a huge relief for the whole country and the international community.”
Buhari also urged citizens to be “patient and fair” to the government, amid fierce criticism of the country’s persistent security concerns.
Masari rejected these messages and said instead that “local bandits” “mimic” his speech.
Unicef, the United Nations agency responsible for providing humanitarian aid to children, said that far too often in Nigeria, children are the “target of the attack”.
“Attacks on educational facilities are a serious violation of children’s rights,” Nigeria Agency spokesman Peter Hawkins said on Friday. “This incident is a disturbing memory of the serious number of violence against civilians in northwestern Nigeria, including children.”
While kidnappings for ransom by criminals have become more common, a kidnapping of this scale is unheard of in Katsina State. He recalls the brutal abduction of 276 girls from Chibok in 2014 by Shekau’s group. More than 100 girls never returned home.