Governor Adams Oshiomhole has announced that from Wednesday, all students in both public and private schools in Edo State who wear uniforms will be given free bus rides.
Governor Oshiomhole said this in Benin on Tuesday, as part of activities to mark this year’s Children Day celebration.
“With effect from Wednesday, May 28, school children of both public and private schools wearing their school uniforms would have free tickets to board the comrade bus services.”
The governor also used the opportunity to condemn the abduction of the girls and
prayed for their speedy and for the country’s unity and progress.
Elsewhere, in Lagos State, no fewer than 1, 500 children had a train ride from the Iddo Terminus to Ijoko in Ogun State, as part of activities to commemorate the day.
However, in Abuja, the Children’s Day celebration was marked on a low-key.
The major holiday spots in the city such as the Silverbird Galleria and Millennium Park, did not have as much patronage as it had in the past years.
This year’s Children’s Day in Nigeria was generally marked on a low key as the nation remains anguished by the abduction of over 200 school girls from a boarding school in Borno over a month ago.
Children in Enugu State, who gathered at the Michael Okpara Square, wept as they offered prayers on behalf of the abducted girls, asking God to keep them safe and speedily reunite them with their families.
They also carried placards denouncing the abduction of the school girls and demanded their immediate release.
The prayers were led by the state chairman of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, Godwin Madu, and the state Secretary of Christian Association Nigeria, CAN, Emeka Ejim.
Speaking on behalf of the children, young Precious Edeh, said, “We did not come here to celebrate, rather we came to express our anguish at the continued plight of our mates in the hands of the Boko Haram people. We came to seek God’s intervention so that they can be freed because just like us, they committed no crime by going to school.”