In an effort to prevent the incessant abductions bedivilling students across s hools in Northern Nigeria, the Adamawa State Government has engaged local hunters and vigilantes to protect schools and prevent the abduction of students.
The Commissioner of Ministry of Education and Human Service Mrs Wilbina Jackson made the disclosure on Thursday in Yola, the state capital, in an event organized by Education in Emergencies Working Group to commemorate the International Day to protect Education in the state.
She noted that the government took the measure in a further effort to save the state from the abductions that have occurred in parts of the country in recent times.
“The measure was a followup to suspension of boarding in schools so that students will attend schools from the safety of thier homes,” she said.
Jackson further explained that the vigilantes were required to complement the efforts of regular security arrangements.
The event, Commemoration of International Day to Protect Education Against Attack in Adamawa State, which was organized by Education in Emergencies Working Group Nigeria, in collaboration with the Adamawa State Ministry of Education, featured student representatives from the Federal Government Girls College (FGGC), Yola, who made a speech and staged a drama.
The Adamawa State Focal Person of the Education in Emergencies Working Group, Mr Medugu Stephen, said his organisation works with stakeholders especially in the focal states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe to ensure that schools remain open and studies uninterrupted irrespective of emergency situations that may arise.
“We are working in the area of seeing that education continues even in emergencies such as abductions going on in parts of the country,” he told newsmen in the course of the event in Yola.
He added that as much as his organisation supports the deboarding in secondary schools for security reason as the Adamawa State Government has done, his organisation is working with the government to see that no student drops out of school even as some may have to leave their current schools for schools nearer to their homes.
“We appreciate and encourage the moves by government to ensure that all students who leave their present school are enroled back in schools near them,” h esaid.
Earlier during the ceremony, Miss Wusayamba Markus who delivered a speech on behalf of the students from the FGGC Yola, urged the building of fence around all schools in the country to protect students against abduction.
The students also pleaded for the provision of steady electricity within and outside school premises.
“Men of the underworld love darkness, hence provision of electricity will scare them from performing their nefarious activities,” the students said.
Daji Sani in Yola
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