Improve security in schools, NSCDC boss tells officials

The Commandant General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Ahmed Audi, has directed state coordinators of the National Safe Schools Response Coordination Centre, Commanders of the Special Female Squad, and officers of the corps to intensify efforts towards protecting educational institutions across the country.

Audi stated this in a keynote address delivered at the corps national headquarters in Abuja on Friday.

Against the backdrop of the resurgence of mass abduction of pupils, the Federal Government said schools in 14 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, are at risk of attacks by bandits and insurgents.

The states included Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Benue, Yobe, Katsina, FCT, Kebbi, Sokoto, Plateau, Zamfara and three others.

No fewer than 465 pupils, teachers, and women abducted in the past weeks are still in the custody of their captors.

Fifteen pupils of an Islamiya school in Sokoto State were kidnapped two weeks ago, less than 72 hours after 287 schoolchildren and teachers were abducted from the LEA Primary School and the Government Secondary School both at Kuriga, in the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

Last week Friday, the Minister of State for Education, Yusuf Sununu, called on state governors to establish Safe School Response Coordination Centres to forestall attacks and kidnappings in schools.

The CG, in a statement signed by the NSCDC spokesperson, Babawale Afolabi, told the coordinators that a commensurate response must be developed to end the menace of attacks on schools.

“We have a lot of issues concerning schools in the country, and NSCDC is the lead agency in the protection of critical national assets and infrastructure.

“We cannot fold our hands to watch things going wrong without commensurate response to restore stability in our schools,” he emphasized.

Represented by the Deputy Commandant General in Charge of Administration, Adeyinka Ayinla, the CG re-echoed the need for all schools in the country to register with the centre.

In his remarks, the Commander of the NSSRCC, Hammed Abodunrin, explained that the centre was meant to ensure the safety of schools, adding that it gathers information from different locations and disseminates to where such information would be acted upon.

Abodunrin maintained that different security agencies with the mandate of protecting schools like Nigeria Police, Department of State Services, Armed Forces and Defence Intelligence Agency are all represented at the centre and called on schools in the country to ensure the passage of timely information to the centre for immediate response.