By JOHN ONAH, Abuja
The National Leadership of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) have regret the reported abduction of students and teachers of Government Science Secondary School Kagara Niger State in the early hours of Wednesday 17 February, 2021.
In a statement signed by the Secretary General of the Union, Mike Ene, said the union is greatly concerned over the increasing state of insecurity across the country, where attacks on soft target such as schools are fast becoming danger spot for bandit and other criminal elements in Nigeria.
NUT is alarmed by this brazen attack which has left a number of families and relatives distressed and described it as attack too many.
“We call on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency declare a state of emergency on security situation in the country”.
“The current strategy deployed by our security agencies fall short of expectation considering that the Kagara abduction has just occurred while the nation is yet to fully contend with the December, 2020 abduction of students in Government Science Secondary School Kankara Katsina state”.
“Such criminal elements have no place in a civilized society such as Nigeria”.the statement said.
The union also called on the Federal Government to deploy the full weight of the nation’s security apparatus to ensure the safe return of our abducted students and teachers.
It added that furthermore steps must be taken to completely eliminate all forms of security threats to our schools. We wish to reiterate that teaching and learning can only be guranteed in an atmosphere safety and security.
“It has become imperative for all tiers of government to put all hands on deck. We therefore call on state governments to use part of their security voters to employ alternate security service to complement existing security agencies in policing our schools”.
“We must warn that if the security situation in our schools and colleges is not guaranteed, the NUT will not hesitate to withdraw the services of all teachers in the affected states of the federation”, the statement added.
DISCLAIMER
The OPINION / COLUMN is authored by independent contributors to the National Accord Newspaper. While contributors adhere to our editorial guidelines, they are not employed by the National Accord Newspaper. The perspectives and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of the National Accord Newspaper or its staff.