There is no end to the unprecedented wave of condemnations that have greeted the recent mass abduction of Students and Teachers in Kaduna and Sokoto States respectively.
No fewer than 287 schoolchildren in the Kuriga community, Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State in Nigeria were kidnapped by gunmen on March 7, 2024 in one of the largest mass abductions in three years.
The Kaduna state attack was the second mass kidnapping in a week in Africa’s most populous state, where heavily armed criminal gangs on motorbikes target victims in villages and schools and along highways in the hunt for ransom payments.
To express complete disapproval of the situation is the Minister of State, National Safe Education, Yusuf Sununu, while on a working visit to the National Safe School Response Coordination Centre (NSSRCC) domiciled in the National Headquarters of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Abuja.
According to the National PRO of the Corps, Babawale Afolabi in a Statement, the visit aimed to strengthen the operational techniques of the Centre.
Yusuf described the ugly incident as a calculated attempt targeted at the nation’s education sector which calls for a sober reflection.
He maintained that education is a fundamental basis for overall development just as the renewed hope agenda of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration has made education a top priority and has emplaced modalities to create an enabling environment for over 20 million School Children in Nigeria.
Sununu said his visit to the NSSRCC was to ascertain the needs of the Centre and to make it function effectively.
He said in line with the Safe Schools implementation project, there is a need for him to reiterate focusing more on proactive measures by intensifying efforts in timely intelligence gathering and dissemination of such information to respective actors to nip in the bud the nefarious activities of evil perpetrators.
The Minister of State Education however advised the State Governments to replicate the Safe School Response Coordination Centre in their respective states as these would be connected to the NSSRCC for effective operations and coordination.
He also called on all principals of schools to register with the centre for easy dissemination of information.
In his remarks, the NSCDC Commandant General, Ahmed Abubakar Audi, expressed the readiness of the Corps to work intimately with other security agencies to secure the release of the abducted students.
The CG who was represented by the Deputy Commandant General, Administration- DCG Adeyinka Fasiu noted that the abduction of students and teachers in Kaduna and Sokoto States would be treated with utmost caution and professionalism as both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches would be employed to rescue the students from their abductors.
The CG said with NSCDC as a coordinating agency in the Protection of all Critical National Assets and Infrastructure; the Corps is committed to discharging its statutory duties with improved technologies and without compromise.
Reacting on improved Safe School Response Techniques, the Commander of NSSRCC, Hammed Abodunrin, emphasized the need for both public and private schools to register with the centre.
The Commander also gave assurance that the mission of the NSSRCC is to protect schools and host communities and that with the deployment of modern technology; the incidence of attacks on schools would be averted.
Present during the courtesy visit are DCG Raji Ibrahim, ACG from various Directorate and Departments, the National Coordinator financing safe Schools at the Federal Ministry of Finance; Hajiya Halima Iliya, Captain A. Usman from the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) and Directors from the Federal Ministry of Education.
