•CNG tasks FG on their release
•Tinubu declares emergency on rescue of victims
Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has condemned the abduction of students, mostly female, of the Federal University Gusau (FUGUS), Zamfara State, by terrorists, calling on the Federal Government to overhaul its security architecture to end banditry in the country.
About 24 students of the university were abducted on Friday morning. Reports had it that six of the victims were rescued by the Nigerian Army.
In a statement in Kaduna, yesterday, the Northern group said, it is with utter consternation that it received the news about the abduction.
National Publicity of ACF, Prof. Tukur Muhammad-Baba, said: “Although official information about the incidence is scanty, relative to the enormity of the incidence, personal testimonies from witnesses to the disturbing incident suggests that the attack was well planned, coordinated and executed by the bandits/terrorists.
“Evidently, female students were specifically targeted, and the bandits were at the crime scene fully prepared. Efforts to repel the bandits by elements of the Nigerian Army neither deterred nor stopped the bandits from going off with a yet-to-be ascertained number of hapless victims.”
ACF urged the Federal Government to rejig the country’s security architecture and come up with new multi-pronged containment strategies against security and related existential threats bedeviling schools and indeed all communities.
In the same vein, Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) called on the Federal Government to increase its force in the release of the abducted students.
It condemned the abduction the students and nine construction workers engaged by the university.
Spokesperson for CNG, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, in a briefing, yesterday, in Abuja, urged President Bola Tinubu to demonstrate his commitment to addressing the insecurity in the northern Nigeria by hastening the release of the students.
Suleiman stressed that the group would continue to support the present administration, adding that it must depart from the previous approach of fighting insecurity.
He said: “We are using this opportunity to demand urgent action from government to secure the release of the abducted students of Gusau university to be reunited with their families alive and safe.”
Hour after the call, Tinubu declared that there is no moral justification for such heinous crime against innocent victims whose only “offense” was their pursuit of quality education.
Condemning the act, in a statement, yesterday, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, said the President directed security agencies to activate action to rescue the students in captivity.
Empathising with all families directly impacted by the sad incident, Tinubu affirmed that his administration has a solemn duty to protect every Nigerian citizen, and in line with this commitment, just as he assured the families that no effort would be spared in ensuring their safe return.
