Safety of schoolchildren is again under scrutiny as bandits carry out audacious attacks across the Northern part of the country.
According to report, from Wednesday, March 6 to Monday March 11, about 800 unsuspecting Nigerians, mostly schoolchildren, were kidnapped by daredevil terrorists in the northern part of the country.
According to Amnesty International, AI, Boko Haram terrorists abducted over 400 people, including women and children in Borno State on Tuesday last week.
The Islamic extremists abducted the victims who reportedly left the Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, camps in Gamboru Ngala council area to search for firewood.
The victims were mostly women and children sacked from their ancestral homes by the terrorists causing mayhem in the Northeast.
Barely 24 hours after the Borno attack, over 280 pupils and teachers of Government Secondary School and LEA primary school at Kuriga, Kaduna State were abducted by bandits on March 8, triggering national outrage.
The blood-thirsty bandits invaded the Kuriga area of the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State in the morning shooting at their victims before taking away at least 280 of the pupils and teachers.
A few days after the Kuriga incident, the assailants struck again in Buda community in Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State, abducting over 61 people.
About four persons were reportedly killed during the unfortunate incident.
Recall also, that armed men broke into a boarding school in Gidan Bakuso village of the Gada council area in Sokoto State on March 9 and abducted about 15 children. The attackers invaded the school when the children were sleeping.
Killing in Benue State
The same week, over 50 persons, including a family of seven, were killed following the invasion of Gbagir community in Ukum Local Government Area of Benue State, by suspected armed Fulani militia.
Over 16 people were also killed on March 8 during an attack on Wa-ndoo, a community in Mbalom, Gwer-East Local Government Area of Benue State.
The attackers, whom the state governor, Hyacinth Alia and residents claimed were armed herders, invaded the community at night while some of the residents were having supper. They opened fire on residents and whisked some away.
Tension in schools
Since the 2014 incident when more than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped by the Islamic extremists in Borno State’s Chibok village, there has been a series of abductions of school children.
The armed gangs have targeted and attacked several schools for ransom.
Report says the recent attacks, particularly the abduction of 280 students in Kaduna State have triggered tension in other school facilities across the nation, especially in the Northern region.
Parents in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT Abuja are worried over rumours of planned attacks in schools.
There are rumours that the terrorists are planning to launch attacks in some government-owned schools, particularly in Bwari, Bwari Area Council.
Some schools are also said to have adjusted their academic calendar to enable students write their second-term examinations and proceed for Easter holidays.
