THE Nasarawa State Police Command has launched a search for six pupils who were abducted at the Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) Primary School Alwaza, Doma Local Government Area of the state, Friday morning.
The spokesperson for the state Police Command, Rahman Nansel, a deputy superintendent of police, told reporters in Lafia, the state capital, that a team of policemen, military and local vigilantes were on the trail of the abductors in a bid to rescue the pupils.
According to him, the abducted children are between the ages of seven and eight.
He said the state commissioner of police Maiyaki Muhammed-Baba had visited the community for an on-the-spot assessment.
Nansel appealed to people in the state to avail the security formations of any information that could help them apprehend the abductors and rescue the children.
The ICIR reports that the state Deputy Governor, Emmanuel Akabe, a doctor, visited the school on Friday to sympathize with the community and inform them of the government’s determination to rescue the children.
Arise TV correspondent in the community said three motorcyclists, with two people each, arrived in the community and took away seven children on their way to school. The gunmen dropped one of the children because there was no space to convey him on the motorcycles.
Alwaza community is less than 30 minutes from Lafia, the state capital.
Friday’s abduction may reignite the fears of kidnapping and abductions by gunmen in schools among Nigerian parents, teachers and school managers.
Since Boko Haram kidnapped 276 school girls on April 14, 2014 at the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, abductions of pupils and students have spiked in Nigeria.
Several mass abductions and kidnappings have followed in different parts of the country, especially in the North.
In January 2022, The ICIR reported how parents withdrew their children from schools in Kaduna and Niger states because of insecurity.
Another report by The ICIR showed how the government shut down 30 per cent of schools in Zamfara State for over a year because of insecurity.
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2023. Contact him via email @ mfatunmole@icirnigeria.org