Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has called on the Federal Government to immediately declare a state of emergency on insecurity following another mass kidnapping of schoolchildren in Niger State.
Reacting to Friday’s attack on St. Mary’s Primary and Secondary School in Papiri, Agwara Local Government Area, Atiku warned that the escalating kidnappings across Nigeria require urgent and extraordinary measures.
“Not again. This is truly heartbreaking,” he wrote on X.
He added: “How many more lives must be shattered before decisive action is taken? It is not too late for the government to finally declare a state of emergency on insecurity and confront this menace with the urgency it deserves.”
According to reports, gunmen stormed the Catholic-owned school in the early hours of Friday, arriving in large numbers on over 60 motorcycles and accompanied by a van, before abducting an unspecified number of students.
The Niger incident is the latest in a rising wave of school kidnappings. It comes less than a week after bandits kidnapped 26 students from Government Girls Comprehensive Senior Secondary School, Maga, in Kebbi State, an attack that also claimed the life of Vice Principal Hassan Makuku, who tried to resist the gunmen.
The attack also follows the abduction of at least 30 worshippers during a deadly assault on the Christ Apostolic Church in Eruku, Kwara State, which left three people dead.
In response to the earlier mass abduction of students, President Bola Tinubu condemned the attacks and expressed sympathy to the victims’ families.
The President also directed Vice President Kashim Shettima to visit those affected.
