The Sultan of Sokoto and President General of Jama’atu Nasril Islam, Alhaji Mohammad Sa’ad Abubakar, has urged government to improve its intelligence gathering, and take proactive measures to stop spate of banditry in the country.
Speaking in a statement signed by the JNI Secretary General, Alhaji Khalid Aliyu, on Friday, the Sultan urged the government and the new service chiefs to boldly and decisively tackle the menace of insecurity in the country and ensure the safe return of the Kagara schoolchildren, their teachers as well as the passengers of Niger State Transport Authority (NSTA) equally abducted recently.
The statement read in part, “The Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) under the leadership of its President-General, His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto is in utter disbelief and astonishment that students could be abducted from school, despite the not too long ago Kankara episode. And that teachers and students were abducted from Government Science College, Kagara, Niger state, a few days after the kidnap of passengers on board the Niger State Transport Authority (NSTA) bus had happened in the same Niger state.
“This is absolutely incredible, despicable and condemnable. Ordinarily, the school abduction should have been averted if there was adequate security surveillance and alertness around our boarding schools. This is because these unfortunate trends are becoming the new normal. Worse still, Kagara town and by extension Niger state has become infamous given the serial attacks by bandits and other criminals in the recent past.
“Isn’t intelligence part of security networking? Why is it that these repeated actions have continued clandestinely without trace? As a country, do we really understand the magnitude of these repeated orgies of events? Are we really conscious of the repercussions of these bloodletting and other criminalities? This Kagara abduction is one tragedy too many to bear. The government must realise that decisiveness and boldness should be brought to bear in tackling this menace. The newly appointed service chiefs should see these unfortunate kidnap and abduction in Niger State as a wakeup call and a litmus test.
“Make no mistake, the abduction is a classic example of the philosophical foundation of Boko Haram – that western education is forbidden. That’s why their targets are always boarding schools, especially science schools, considered atheistic in pedagogy.
“The government must do everything possible to enhance and secure the territorial integrity of Nigeria from criminalities and spare no effort(s) to immediately return all the kidnapped passengers and the abducted staff and students unscathed. More so, the government should begin outlining its priorities on the security challenges bedevilling the country and frontally rise against the surge of insecurity, through proactive measures and nipping in the bud, before it degenerates further.”
