· Demands audit of $30m Safe School Initiative
Gboyega Akinsanmi
No fewer than 939 students have been kidnapped from different secondary schools and tertiary institutions across the federation between December 2020 and May 2021, a new survey that tracks kidnapping incidents in schools has revealed.
With the rising incidents of students’ abduction, Global Rights, a Washington-based human rights organisation, asked the federal government to audit the Safe School Initiative, a $30 million project initiated under the Goodluck Jonathan administration to protect schools nationwide.
The organisation yesterday released the report of its study to THISDAY, graphically showing the trajectory of mass abduction that occurred in secondary schools and tertiary institutions from December 2020 and May 2021.
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari said on Tuesday he felt "overwhelming joy" over the news that kidnappers had released hundreds of schoolgirls in northwest Zamfara state unharmed.
According to earlier reports, 317 girls from the Government Girls Science Secondary (GGSS) School in the town of Jangebe were abducted by an armed gang at around 1 a.m. on Friday.
Gunmen who kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls from a boarding school in northwest Nigeria last week beat them and threatened to shoot them during a forced march into captivity, victims said on Tuesday after they were set free.
Gunmen who kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls from a boarding school in northwest Nigeria last week beat them and threatened to shoot them during a forced march into captivity, victims said on Tuesday after they were set free.