Northern Governors’ Forum has described as embarrassing and unfortunate the abduction of 317 Government Secondary School, Jangebe in Zamfara State.
The girls were kidnapped after bandits stormed their school early hours of Friday, a development that has left many Nigerians worried, especially coming at a time the 27 Government Science College schoolboys, who were kidnapped alongside some of their teachers by bandits in Niger State are still in captivity.
Responding to the new incident in a statement in Jos on Friday, Chairman of the Forum and Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong said, “As Northern Governors, we are deeply saddened by this embarrassing and unfortunate attack on our children who are in schools to seek knowledge and build capacity to impact the nation and create a better society.
“The assault on schools where innocent and harmless students are targeted should not be condoned in any way because it has the tendency to set the nation back to ignorance and more poverty. The Northern part of the country, in particular, is more educationally disadvantaged and cannot afford to have these disruptions. Enough is enough”.
He called on the security agencies to use every asset at their disposal to ensure the schoolgirls regained their freedom and make sure the perpetrators were brought to justice.
He also called on Nigerians to support the security agencies and government with credible information that could lead to a swift resolution of the situation.
The Plateau State governor sympathised with the families of the kidnapped schoolgirls, the people and government of the state, assuring them of the support of the Northern Governors’ Forum in tackling the problem.