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Abduction of Students: Declare state of emergency – Senate
BY NICHOLAS ABE
The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday asked the President, Muhammadu Buhari, to declare a state of emergency on security without further delay.
The Senate’s resolution comes on a day an unspecified number of secondary school students were yet again abducted by so-called bandits, this time in Minna, Niger State.
The resolution followed a point of order by Senator Sani Musa (APC, Niger East), on the abduction of students and staff of the Government Science Secondary School in Kagara, Niger State in the early hours of Wednesday.
Musa said the bandits who whisked their victims away were dressed in military uniforms.
The bandits reportedly killed a student and abducted several others, including teachers in the attack which occurred at about 2am, Wednesday.
Details of the incident remains sketchy as at the time of this report but the Director General of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA) Alhaji Ibrahim Inga confirmed the incident. He said profiling of the students and teachers was in progress to determine how many were kidnapped.
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According to Senator Musa, the actual number of students abducted was not known but the school had over 1000 students.
The Senator said security agencies had explained that they were on the trail of the criminals.
The Senate demanded the implementation of its ad hoc resolution on security and urged the combined team of military and police to set up an operation to destroy criminal camps across the country.
Senator Sabi Abdullahi, also from Niger State, said the kidnappers and bandits were emboldened by the successes they had recorded in the state in recent time as about 100 people had so far been kidnapped.
He said the forest from the FCT which extends to Niger up to Zamfara State was being used by the criminals, adding the fact that bandits have invaded Niger State was an indication that the safety of lives and properties of FCT residents were being threatened.
Senator Bima Enagi, also from Niger State, declared that the Buhari government was incompetent to handle security challenges in the country.
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He said, “We need to amend the constitution so that governors should be chief security officers of their states since the government at the centre had failed to protect the lives and properties of Nigerians.
“The Federal Government is busy giving palliative instead of creating employment, thus aggravating insecurity.
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, described the kidnap of the students as unfortunate.
“With incidences like this, parents would be scared to take their wards to school, and the efforts of the past and by present leaders at providing education would be defeated,” he said.