.Military vow to rescue abducted Kaduna school children
The Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Inuwa Yahaya, has said governors from the region are concerned over the spate of insecurity in the North.
This is as he said the northern governors demanded a change in the approach to tackling insecurity in the region.
Yahaya, who is the governor of Gombe State, disclosed this on Thursday after a closed-door meeting with the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, and the Service Chiefs led by the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa.
Governors said to be present at the meeting included Uba Sani of Kaduna State, Dauda Lawal of Zamfara, Babagana Zulum of Borno, Radda Dikko of Katsina, and Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State, among others.
Yahaya noted that the meeting was convened to discuss and review strategies for tackling cases of insecurity in the region.
He said, “The essence of the meeting as you can see is between the governors and the service chiefs and the NSA.
“So, it relates to security and you know security is very critical, especially that there were the recent issues of kidnapping in the North West and we are becoming so concerned that we need to discuss, review, and possibly take alternative options to what we have been doing before so that we can have a better result.”
He stressed the need for non-kinetic and kinetic approaches to address the remote causes of insecurity.
“In fact, that is the best way to go because the issue is until we join the kinetic and non-kinetic approaches and already the service chiefs and all other security agencies have been doing their best.
“So what we need to do is to change the style, especially adding it with the non-kinetic approach, so that at the end of it when we join the two, we’ll have a better security situation in the country,” he said.
Military vow to rescue abducted Kaduna school children
Meanwhile, the Nigerian military on Thursday vowed to rescue the over 250 school children recently abducted by bandits in Kaduna State.
Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, who gave the assurance while addressing a press conference on the activities of the Armed Forces in the last two weeks in Abuja, said the military is committed to rescuing all kidnapped victims unhurt.
The defence spokesman however, blamed school owners for failing to report cases of abduction to security agencies on time.
He also blamed the recent kidnapping of some internally displaced persons in Gamboru-Ngala, Borno State on their disobedience to instructions as they left the camp in search of firewood without informing camp officials.
The abduction of 287 students in Kaduna State has triggered a flurry of comments from authorities in Nigeria.
In the wake of the abduction, President Bola Tinubu mandated security agencies to fish out the kidnappers and rescue the students, insisting his government would not pay ransom.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation Muhammad Idris said this on Wednesday after the Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja.
He told State House Correspondents that President Tinubu also reiterated his directive to the defence to ensure that the children are rescued and brought back safely to their homes.
The minister reiterated that under the current government, kidnapping, especially mass abduction will not be tolerated.
Some of the recent incidents of insecurity in the Northern parts of the country include the abduction of about 200 women and children who left the Internally Displaced Persons camps in search of firewood in Ngala, Borno state, on March 6.
Bandits on March 7, abducted 287 students from the LEA Primary and Junior Secondary School, Kuriga in the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
Also, on Saturday, bandits kidnapped no fewer than 15 Tsangaya students in the Gidan Bakuso area of Gada Local Government Area of Sokoto State.
