Founding Director of Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), Dr Abiola Akiyode Afolabi, has lamented the high rate of abduction of school children across the country.
Afolabi made the condemnation at a meeting organized by WARDC in collaboration with Forward in Action for Poverty and Malnutrition (FACEPAM) for school administrators, communities and cIvil sociaty organizations on advocating safe and secure schools held at Zaranda Hotel Bauchi.
Afolabo, who is also one of the Bring Back Our Girls Converners, said that although abduction of school children in the country, which was not a new thing, has become more rampant recently hence the intervention of WRRDC.
“We all know about the abduction of Chibok school girls which has become a global issue but school children have also been abducted in large number in various schools,” siting the kidnaping of school children at a school in Ikorodu in Lagos and other states in Nigeria.
“The importance of this meeting is to deliberate on how to adress the safety and security of our schools in our communities in Nigeria and how the communities should take the initiative themselves to see that goverment takes safety and security of schools as priority and act accordingly.
She however tasked the government at all levels to take security particularly in schools as a priority to preserve the lives of the students and teachers.
Afolabi lamented that over 490 teachers had been killed in Borno State in the process of trying to protect their students from insurgents attack.
In his address, Dr Ahmed Graba of the Faculty of Law, Bauchi State University, Misau Campus, said fhat the security of schools must consider the best approach and response.
Garba argued that the best way to forestall abduction of school children is to use collaborative approach whereby all stakeholders namely governemnt, the school management and staff, and parents are all involved on how to secure the safety of school children.
He urged all school administrators and proprietors to come up with what he called emergency management team that will prevent, prepare, respond and recover.
