The Nigerian government has vowed a swift rescue for 25 girls kidnapped from their secondary school in Kebbi State in the north-western part of the country.
Information Minister Mohammed Idris, in a statement on Monday, said the government “condemns the reprehensible attack on innocent students and the killing of school officials who were carrying out their noble duty.”
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PREMIUM TIMES reported that terrorists, locally called bandits, attacked the Maga Comprehensive Girls’ Secondary School in Danko Wasagu LGA of Kebbi in the early hours of Monday.
The police later said the attack occurred at about 4 a.m. and that 25 students of the school were kidnapped, while one school official was killed.
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“Our security and intelligence agencies have been issued clear directives to locate, rescue, and safely return the students, and to ensure that the perpetrators face justice,” Mr Idris wrote.
“The Federal Government will not relent until this objective is achieved.”
Mr Idris said the federal government expressed deep concern and solidarity with the families of the female students abducted from the school
“We share in their pain and are firmly committed to bringing the girls home safely,” he stated.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, has reiterated that protecting every Nigerian, especially schoolchildren, remains a solemn responsibility of the State. The government condemns the reprehensible attack on innocent students and the killing of school officials who were carrying out their noble duty.
“Our security and intelligence agencies have been issued clear directives to locate, rescue, and safely return the students, and to ensure that the perpetrators face justice. The Federal Government will not relent until this objective is achieved.
“We assure Nigerians that strengthening internal security remains a top priority. The Federal Government is recalibrating the nation’s military, policing, and intelligence capabilities to more effectively prevent these attacks and respond with greater speed and precision whenever threats arise.
“Nigeria is also reinforcing cooperation with regional partners through ECOWAS, the African Union, and the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to secure our borders and disrupt terrorist and criminal networks. We urge the public to remain calm and confident”, the federal government said.
The security situation in the North-west and a part of the North-central regions has led to the deaths and kidnapping of hundreds of people, a times forcing the closure of schools in the areas as terrorist groups target schools for mass abduction for ransom.
READ ALSO: ANALYSIS: Why Kebbi’s school abduction happened, what It reveals about rising insecurity in Nigeria’s North-West
States in the North-west especially Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto and Kebbi and Niger in the North-central have been greatly affected by the activities of the terrorists and abduction of school children.
One of the terrorist groups had in June 2021 abducted 11 pupils of Federal Government College, Yauri, in the same Kebbi State.
No group had claimed responsibility for the latest abduction, but the previous one in Yauri was perpetrated by terrorism kingpin Dogo Gide, who released the victims in batches after ransom and long negotiations.
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