PDP leaders, others protest, seek release of kidnapped students

National leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and scores of women staged a protest in Abuja yesterday seeking immediate release of the kidnapped students of the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State.

Displaying placards with inscriptions condemning the alleged insensitivity of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, the protesters said the level of insecurity had become unbearable for Nigeria.

National Chairman of PDP, Uche Secondus, in a very short address said: “This is a peaceful protest to make the entire country and international community to be aware of what is going on in our country. And all we are saying is that Buhari should bring back our boys from Katsina.

“It is important, we are in pain, the parents are in pain, the entire country is in pain, we’re in agony, we are in sorrow.

“It is high time for the government of the day, the APC government to bring back our boys from Katsina. That is the bold statement by PDP today with this peaceful protest”.

Among the inscriptions on the placards are “Buhari has failed,” “Buhari, bring back our boys” and “Buhari values his cows more than human lives.”

The protesters said time had come for the President to throw in the towel, saying “his inability to secure the nation is now glaring for all to see.”

Secondus, who stood in solidarity with the peaceful protesters, also noted that the situation in the country has become too dangerous for silence even as he called on the President to immediately bring the abducted students back unhurt.

The PDP boss urged President Buhari to remember that the parents of the abducted students are passing through traumatic moments.Last week, gunmen stormed the school and took away hundreds of students, a development that elicited nationwide outcry.

Two days later, factional leader of the Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau, in an audio message claimed responsibility for the abduction, saying the boys were taken away to save them from the corrupt influence of the western education they were getting in the school.