Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, has slammed the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, over his recent comment on school kidnapping.
Mohammed while appearing as a quest on Channels Television said that developed countries also experience school kidnapping.
He said this amid the kidnapping of students and staff of Government Science College, Kagara in Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State by bandits.
The Minister said, “Even in the most developed countries of this world, school kidnapping takes place. Last year, in the US, we all witnessed three of four school kidnappings, and that is in probably one of the most developed countries in the world.
“The thing about terrorism is that the terrorists don’t live by your own rules and they are especially interested in soft targets. They know that what is going to get global attention is kidnapping school children.
“We must be careful; we can’t turn all our schools into barracks. What is important is intelligence gathering, surveillance rather than the physical presence of the soldiers or policemen.
“We are dealing with people who don’t think like me and you, we are dealing with people who don’t have any rules of engagement, we are dealing with people whose motivation is completely different from mine and yours. And anywhere in the world, this is how terrorists operate but the most important thing is to learn from what is happening and adapt.”
Mohammed’s statement has been described as soulless by Ezekwesili who was an activist campaigning for the release of the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists in Chibok, Borno State in 2014.
“Imagine. Yet another soulless statement that should not be heard from anyone in Public Leadership. The cries of #ChibokGirls and parents, #LeahSharibu and parents #KagaraStudents and parents are judging this statement daily,” she wrote on her verified Twitter handle.
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