Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has called on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on the nation’s education following the abductions of schoolchildren in parts of the country.
Atiku in a statement he personally signed and issued on Monday said short-term solutions will result to destruction on long-term destruction, noting that the Nigerian government must stop paying a ransom to facilitate the release of schoolchildren.
“I repeat my call for the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the education sector, and to post 24-hour armed guards at every school in the affected and neighbouring states. No expense must be spared to keep our schools safe,” he said while reacting to the recent abduction of primary school pupils in the Rema area of Kaduna State.
“We must also stop paying ransom at random. It is a short-term solution that will cause much long-term destruction. We must as a nation impose law and order now, or we will bequeath lawlessness and disorder to the next generation. And may God forbid that.
“With 13.5 million children, Nigeria is already the world headquarters for out-of-school kids. This can only make things worse. It behooves on us as a nation to act decisively and excise this cancer of school abductions from our polity with clinically precise policies.”
Following the attack by bandits on the school, an unconfirmed number of pupils and teachers are feared to have been abducted.
The Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs in the state, Samuel Aruwan, who confirmed to Channels Television on Monday, noted that the primary school attacked by the bandits is located in the Birnin Gwari Local Government Area of the state.
According to the commissioner, the state government is currently obtaining details on the actual number of pupils and teachers reported to have been kidnapped.
The latest abduction of pupils is the second in the recent series of attacks by bandits in Kaduna State.
In the last five days, the gunmen attempted to attack at least four schools – at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels.
The other schools are Turkish International Secondary School, Government Science Secondary school, Ikara, as well as Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka.
While the military successfully thwarted two of the attacks, bandits abducted persons from the schools in Rema and Afaka.
The Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation came under attack very early on Friday, not long after bandits attempted to attack the Turkish school.
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