Nigeria’s former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has urged the Federal Government to adopt and prioritise water-tight security, among other anti-kidnapping measures in schools across the country in protecting students and other soft targets.
Aside from water-tight security, Atiku also asked the apex government to immediately declare a state of emergency in the education sector to ensure relevant stakeholders come together in proferring solutions to incessant cases of kidnappings in school premises.
He explained that the need to outsmart bandits, kidnappers, other terrorists and halt rising cases of kidnapping, particularly that of students across the nation necessitated the call.
Through a post on his social media page on Monday shortly after bandits kidnapped school children in LEA Primary School in Rama village of Birnin-Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State, the former vice president maintained that it was time the government act decisively in arresting the menace.
According to Atiku, who was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate during the 2019 general elections, no expense must be spared to keep our schools safe.
He added that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration must also take a definite stand and adopt swifter and stricter measures as against the payment of ransoms to terrorists.
“With the latest Kaduna school abduction, 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 neighboring states.
“With 13.5 million children, Nigeria is already the world headquarters for out-of-school kids. This can only make things worse. It behoves on us as a nation to act decisively and excise this cancer of school abductions from our polity with clinically precise policies.
“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,” the post read.
