Save schools from rapists, murderers, kidnappers, others, ACF begs government

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has called on the Federal Government to save schoolchildren from the scourge of rape, murder, kidnapping, cultism, homosexuality and sundry vices that are ravaging schools in the country.

The northern leaders warned that the future of the nation was being mortgaged with government’s poor approach to stemming the vices.

The socio-cultural group expressed shock over rising anti-social and criminal acts going on in schools in a statement by its spokesman, Emmanuel Yawe, yesterday.

According to the group: “The latest of these cases of horror is the alleged kidnap and murder of five-year-old pupil, Hanifa Abubakar, by her teacher Abdulmalik Muhammed, at a private school in Kwanar Dakatar, in Kano State,” who was alleged to have kidnapped the young girl, his student, taken her to his house, where he demanded for a ransom of N6m after which he killed her.

“This is a horror story comparable to what happened in December last year when Sylvester Oromoni, a 12-year-old student of Dowen College was bullied, and then tortured to death by his fellow students because he refused to join them in their cult activities.”

“The Arewa Consultative Forum would like to call the attention of the authorities to this new epidemic of drugs, brutality, cultism and deaths which are taking over schools across the country, and endangering the lives of our daughters and sons, as well as the future of our country.”

Yawe argued: “These horror stories are not limited to public schools. But we are particularly concerned about what goes on in private schools because they take their students as commodities, which should be traded for money.

“This is a horrible trend that will not only destroy the future of these innocent children, but that of our Nigeria. Will call on our governments to step in forcefully and nip this trend in the bud.

“Governments have to look into schools that they also own. Our children have reported to us similar acts of bullying in government, and even in military schools, where they are bullied to join cult groups, indulge in homosexual acts, or adopt homosexuality as a way of life. This press release serves as a warming to the government to save Nigerian children who have been trapped in this web of inhumanity created by school teachers, proprietors, and administrators,” the group stressed.