By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
For students in the North, it was yet another tale of woes on Wednesday as gunmen abducted hundreds, including teachers from the Government Science College Kagara in Niger State.
The teachers were kidnapped from the staff quarters within the school premises.
Following the latest assault, the Senate has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency over escalating insecurity across the nation.
TheNiche gathered that gunmen attacked the school around 2:00 am on Wednesday, after sporadic shootings.
One student is feared killed.
“Bandits went into GSC Kagara last night and kidnapped hundreds of students and their teachers,” an official told AFP.
“One of the kidnapped staff and some students managed to escape. The staff confirmed a student was shot dead during the kidnap operation,” the official added.
A former senator and former student of the school, Shehu Sani, also said the principal of the school confirmed the abduction.
Sani said the bandits abducted some students and staff of the school.
While the school has about 1,000 students, the number of students kidnapped is still not unknown. But a headcount was underway.
PRNigeria reported that security agencies were able to detect the coordinate and nature of the area, and have started tracing the bandits’ movement while NAF aircraft have been seen hovering in the air to track the location of the students.
The latest abduction came less than three months after gunmen abducted hundreds of students of Government Secondary School, Kankara in Katsina State. The Katsina students were later freed after negotiations.
Following the kidnap of students and teachers of Government Science Secondary School, Kagara, Niger State by gunmen on Wednesday morning, the lawmakers further called on the President Buhari-led administration to implement the various recommendations of the Senate on how to tackle insecurity.
These resolutions of the Senate followed a motion on a matter of urgent public importance on the incident by Senator representing Niger East, Mohammed Sani Musa.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan said the frequent incidents of kidnapping of students would reverse the gains made in school enrollment over the years in the North.
He said parents would no longer yield to persuasion to enroll their wards in school with the level of insecurity plaguing the area especially the kidnap of school children.
In his contribution, Senator Mohammed Birma Enagi (Niger South) described the Federal Government as “incompetent” in dealing with the rising insecurity in the country.