The Niger State Government says it has taken concrete security measures to ensure the safe return of the abducted Tegina Islamiyyah School children.
This is contained in a statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mary Barje, on Monday in Minna.
The statement said Gov. Abubakar Bello disclosed this while addressing a special squad of combined security personnel deployed to Rafi Local Government Area on Monday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Police had on May 30 confirmed the abduction of the school children and some residents of Tegina in the Rafi Local Government Area of the state.
Bello said that time had come for the State Government to take decisive action once and for all, to end the banditry in the state.
” We will give you all the necessary support to enable you to implement all your security strategies to ensure the safe return of our abducted children and others if any.
“We have tried our possible best not to make them succeed in forcing us to change our normal lives; they started by displacing farmers from their farmlands; next, they moved to burn farms.
”Then, they moved to kidnap and to force us to close our schools, now they have started attacking Islamic schools, only God knows what is next,” he said.
The governor told the special squad that logistics had been provided for them and also promised that their allowances and other financial benefits would always be provided as and when due.
He commended the security personnel for their ongoing fight against banditry and other criminal elements in the state.
” I mourn the killing of 20 Vigilante Corps Members by the bandits in Magama Local Government Area,” he said.
Bello had earlier met with parents of the abducted school children at the palace of the Emir of Kagara, Alhaji Ahmed Gunna, where he urged them to exercise patience as the government was exploring all avenues to ensure the safe rescue of the abductees.
The Emir thanked the governor for all his support to his domain, especially in security, and the support is given to the family of the kidnapped school children.
On his own part, the Headmaster of Salihu Tanko Islamiyyah School, Tegina, Malam Abubakar Alhassan, disclosed that 15 of the teachers abducted from the school had escaped from the hands of their captors in Zamfara.
Alhassan said the teachers were now in a military facility in Birnin Gwari, Kaduna State, where they would soon be handed over to the Niger Government. (NAN)
