Declare state of emergency on insecurity, Senate urges Buhari

Following rising insecurity in the country, heightened by the latest abduction of 27 students, three staff and 12 members of the families at Government Science College in Kagara, Niger state on Wednesday, the Senate has called on President Muhammadu Buhari, to as a matter of urgency, declare a state of emergency on insecurity in the country.

These were resolutions reached by the Senate following consideration of a motion, “Abduction of Students and Teachers of Government Science School Kagara: Need for urgent action.”

Sponsor of the motion, Senator Mohammed Sani Musa (APC, Niger East), while coming under Order 42 and 52 of the Senate Standing Rules, “notes with sadness, and great concern, the recent terrorist attack and abduction of students at Government Science School, Kagara, Niger State by gunmen in the early hours of today of Wednesday.

He said attack and abduction of school children at Government Science School, Kagara, Niger State is coming on the heels of yet to be resolved Kankara abduction of 300 students which took place at Government Science School, Kankara, Katsina State, Chibok Girls in 2014, and abduction of about 100 school girls at Government Girls Science and Technical School, Dapchi, Yobe State in 2018;

“Further worried that Niger, Katsina and many other states in North-west and North-central Nigeria are now bedeviled by Bandits attacks. The bandits Kill and kidnap at will despite the large deployment of police officers and soldiers to the affected states;

Accordingly, the Senate in its resolutions, while condemning the attack on the Government Science School, Kagara, urged President Buhari to immediately declare a state of emergency on insecurity in the country.

The Upper Chamber also urged the President to consider and implement the recommendations of the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee on Nigeria’s Security Challenges dated March, 17th 2020 and Senate Resolutions therefrom, as a holistic response to the mounting security challenges across the country.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, in his remarks, underscored the need for the military and security agencies to work in collaboration with the various state governments towards securing schools situated in the northern part of Nigeria where abduction remains predominant.

“Almost all incidents of abducting students from schools happen in northern Nigeria, and we all know how much efforts our leaders of yesterday, probably right from independence, worked so hard to ensure that children go to school in the northern part of Nigeria.

“So, there’s a need for our security agencies and government to ensure that we come up with a strategy of ensuring security in schools, because with this spate of kidnapping or abductions, definitely there’ll be that negative adverse effect on the desire and willingness of parents to allow their children to go to schools.

“With that, the whole country will be praying and waiting for our abducted children to be returned back to their parents secured and well”, Lawan said.