President Goodluck Jonathan
yesterday ordered security
agencies in the country to
find the 15 nursery and
primary pupils kidnapped on
Monday in Aba, Abia State.
The children, who all attend
Abayi International School,
Aba were abducted in their
school bus on their way to
school. The kidnappers have
since posted a ransom
demand of N20 million.
Doing our best
In a statement by the
president's spokesman Ima
Niboro, Mr. Jonathan also
directed the acting Inspector
General of Police, Hafiz
Ringim, and other security
agencies to immediately take
all necessary steps to rescue
the children and return them
safely to their parents.
"The President urges the
parents and relatives of the
children to remain calm and
assures them that
government will do
everything possible to
apprehend the kidnappers
and bring closure to these
ugly incidents as soon as
possible."
The Abia State government
had last week given
kidnappers in the state a two
week ultimatum to surrender
their weapons and be
rehabilitated in an amnesty
programme.
Speaking in Abuja, Mr Ringim
said competent police
officers have been deployed
to rescue the school children,
adding that, "We have
received the report that the
children were kidnapped
when the bus conveying them
to school was attacked. We
have already deployed some
police officers and men to
Aba. The police have also
deployed the Anti-Terrorists
Squad (ATS) to the state for
quick intervention." He said,
"We are doing the best we
can, going by the training and
leadership capability of our
men, to ensure that the
situation is brought under
control. We have capable and
competent men to do the job.
In a shortest possible time,
the situation will be turned
around."
State of anomie
The National Youth Service
Corps (NYSC) has ordered
all corps members serving in
the state to withdraw from
their places of primary
assignment to the orientation
camp in Umuahia, if they feel
threatened by any attack.
Five corps members
kidnapped in neighbouring,
Rivers State weeks ago have
not been heard of since. Five
journalists were also
kidnapped in the state in July
and released a week after.
Meanwhile, the national
chairman of the Peoples
Democratic Party(PDP),
Okwesilieze Nwodo has
condemned the abduction of
the pupils. He described the
incident as callous and
unacceptable.
A statement by
his media aide, Ike Abonyi,
said the incident has soiled
the nation's 5oth anniversary
celebrations at a time when
many foreign dignitaries are
in the country for the golden
jubilee.
He said the hijackers are
wicked and challenged
relevant security agencies to
fish them out and save the
children, their families and
the nation the trauma.
The chairman said that the
issue of kidnapping in the
South East geo-political zone,
especially Abia State, has
become a huge
embarrassment to the nation
and should be condemned by
all.
The Network of Police
Reform in Nigeria, a non
governmental organisation,
noted that, "the police and
other security forces have,
not just lost control, but have
themselves become targets
of unrelenting attacks by the
hoodlums they are expected
to checkmate." A statement by
Okechukwu Nwanguma, the
Programme Coordinator said
the state government has lost
control of the situation
adding, "Any government that
cannot protect lives and
property is not worth the
name."
No comments:
Post a Comment