ADVOCACY group, Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) has criticised President Muhammadu Buhari and Nasir El-rufai, Governor of Kaduna State over their continued silence on the abduction of some school children in Kaduna.
It would be recalled that Prince Academy, a school located at Damba-Kasaya village in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State was attacked by unknown gunmen on Monday, August 24 with seven students and a teacher abducted in the process.
The abduction which has not received any attention from the appropriate government agencies happened around 8 a.m. when the gunmen stormed the rural community while the students were preparing for their Junior Secondary School examination.
The abducted students were said to be JSS3 students who were among the exit students asked to resume by the Federal and State Governments for their examination.
The BBOG in a statement said the abduction of the school children was a tragic reminder of the gross mishandling of a similar tragedy that befell 219 Chibok schoolgirls in 2014.
“It is now two weeks (14 days) since the news broke that gunmen attacked yet another school in the country – Prince Academy in Damba-Kasaya village in Chikun Local Government in Kaduna State. It was reported that the terrorists killed one-person and abducted Junior Secondary School students as well as a teacher who had been asked to resume school by both the Federal and State governments,” it said
“In what amounts to a case of egregious negligence of citizens by their government, neither the Government of Kaduna State, nor the relevant security establishments of the Federal Government has made any statement whatsoever on this repeat tragedy of schoolchildren being abducted from their schools.”
The advocacy group which has been campaigning for the rescue of the abducted Chibok girls lamented that “it was highly condemnable that under the leadership of President Buhari and El-Rufai respectively as Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces and Governor of Kaduna State, the country was experiencing a tragic reminder of the gross mishandling of a similar tragedy that befell 219 Chibok schoolgirls in 2014.”
It also said the failure of the Federal Government at that time to publicly acknowledge the ChibokGirls tragedy and mount a swift rescue operation was what laid the foundation for the continuing captivity of the remaining 112 Schoolgirls and Leah Sharibu of Dapchi School six years and two years on, respectively.
“Pathetically, like it was with ChibokGirls, so it was with DapchiGirls and now after many years, nothing is different for the KadunaStudents. Our governments continue to repeat a pattern of cynical disregard for the lives of our citizens who show up in school in pursuit of knowledge. No one should ever have to choose between an education and their lives.”
“Our movement is indeed shocked at the incompetent manner in which the reopening of schools amidst a COVID19 pandemic was handled; this in an environment beleaguered by some of the highest levels of insecurity around the world. Worse still, many days after their abduction, parents, and citizens are yet to hear any word from the Government on the status of their children. What happened to the Safe School Initiative that prescribes certain minimum standard of security measures for schools situated in highly insecure parts of the country like Prince Academy?
It further called for the immediate rescue of the abducted students, stating that the country cannot afford to once again abandon her young children to terrorists.
“We demand immediate justice for and the rescue of the #KadunaStudents and their teacher. The government must rescue them. We demand the fastest possible rescue of Favour Danjuma-9 years old, Happy Odoji-14, Ezra Bako-15, Miracle Danjuma 13 and their teacher- Christiana Madugu. This is a constitutional duty their government owes them and that duty must be performed now.”
The ICIR had earlier in a report tried to contact the Department of State Security (DSS), Kaduna State Governor and the Police authorities in the state to confirm the incident and the number of casualties, but got no response to all enquiries sent to their spokespersons as of the time the report was published.
The bandit according to a resident of the area spoken to by Punch Newspaper, Bawa Wakili, said they came in large numbers and shot sporadically.
He was also reported to have said that the gunmen broke into the Aminci Baptist Church within the community where they destroyed musical instruments, including the public address system valued at thousands of naira.
Also, a youth, Akila Barde, said the assailants arrived on motorcycles well-armed.
“They came into the village shooting before they went to the school and picked the students who were receiving lessons in preparation for their Junior examination.
Meanwhile, a source in Kaduna had earlier confided in The ICIR that the state government did not want to engage along with the families to resolve the matter, noting that the most important thing to the government was to ensure the release of the school children and teachers and united with their families.
“The most important thing to the government at the moment is for those children to be released and united with their families,” said a source who did not want to be named.
Olayinka works with The ICIR as the Social Media Manager, Reporter and Fact-checker. You can shoot him an email via shehuolayinka@gmail.com. You can as well follow him on Twitter via @BelloYinka72