The Government Boys Science Secondary School saga is an indication that the nation and government has not learnt from the incidents of abduction of 276 girls from the Chibok Secondary School, Borno State in 2014 and 110 girls at the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State in 2018, Plan International, a non-governmental organisation said in a statement, yesterday.
According to the Country Director of Plan International Nigeria, Dr. Hussaini Abdu, following the two previous incidents and other occurrences of kidnap of students in boarding schools across the country, the Nigeria government by now should have put in place adequate security arrangements to ensure safety of children learning and kept in the care of schools and education authorities everywhere in the country, especially in such locations susceptible to attacks by non-state armed groups.”
According to Abdu, “Nigeria is one of the first 37 countries that endorsed the Safe School Declaration on the 29th of May 2015 at which governments expressed commitments to ensuring protection and continuation of education in conflict situations.”
He, therefore, said that in view of this and efforts by both state and non-state stakeholders to support government in having a reliable safe school policy and implementing framework, there should be by now adequate protection for Nigerian children in schools”.
While calling for a quick headcount of the students to ensure we have a clear picture of how many students are missing, Abdu also called on the Nigeria federal government, the Katsina State government and all relevant security agencies to ensure rescue of all abducted and missing students and that they are returned unharmed.