• HURIWA queries N595b budgeted for intelligence community
Condemnation has trailed the early-morning attack on the Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, in the Danko Wasagu Local Council of Kebbi State, where scores of students were abducted by terrorists.
The Guardian learnt that the assailants struck at about 4:00 a.m., shortly before dawn prayers.
Reports indicated that the attackers entered the school premises, killed a staff member and injured a security guard before fleeing with several students.
Residents of Maga, a community within the Danko Wasagu Local Council, with its headquarters in Ribah, believe the attackers are still in the area. They are calling for swift intervention from the Federal and Kebbi State Governments to prevent the escape of the abductors with the students.
Security agencies have yet to issue an official statement on the incident.
Condemning the attack, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) said the incident has exposed “the lies by the federal government that it had invested massively towards school security initiatives in the country.”
The group also questioned the whereabouts of the N595 billion allocated to the publicly funded intelligence community.
In a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko, HURIWA attributed the abduction to “significant intelligence and security failures”.
The association urged heads of security institutions, including the armed forces, the Department of State Services and the Nigeria Police Force, to take immediate action to track down the terrorists, rescue the hostages and bring the perpetrators to justice.
“We urge the government to put in foolproof and sustainable security and intelligence gathering initiatives all across the country to prevent reoccurrence of such dastardly crimes of mass abduction of students. Those who kidnap students are terrorists and must be dealt with in accordance with the extant counter terrorism law of the Federation. Government must realise that the primary duty it owes the citizens is to protect their lives and property from wanton terrorist attacks and mass killings,” HURIWA said.
The group also called on the government to implement concrete measures to protect schoolchildren nationwide.
HURIWA maintained that the daring attack on the Kebbi school shows the government “relies more on propaganda and empty rhetoric rather than investing in real time substantial resources” to secure students.
The association added that preventive law enforcement is more effective than waiting for crimes to occur before deploying security forces.
“We wonder why the National Assembly members go to bed once they approve the massive budgets for the security and intelligence community without carrying out efficient oversight functions on the relevant security institutions to compel the mainstreaming of the twin values of accountability and transparency. There is a story making the rounds that the law makers deliberately undermine their oversight functions by compromising with the security heads because of pecuniary benefits,” HURIWA alleged.
