Former heads of state, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalam Abubakar have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that kidnapped students and staffs of Government Science College Kagara, Niger State are rescued by all means.
The former military generals said that though they were not in support of negotiation with bandits, but if that is the only option left the government should go ahead with it.
They spoke when a delegation of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) led by its Chairman and Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, visited them separately.
“The safety of the children is of great importance for now. We want them to come out safely without anyone being hurt. Any measure the government takes to secure their release will be okay,” Babangida said.
On his part, Abdulsalam said that “dialogue is not the best way but when you are the one wearing the shoe, what will you do. Our children have been abducted for over five days, even if you know where they are, it will be foolhardy to storm there and fight them because there may be casualties.
“Sometimes there is a need to see the best way you can talk to these heartless people; to see how you can get these people released. But dialoguing is not the best way.”
The elder statesmen also charged the law enforcers to brace up to prevent a future occurrence.
Babangida said: “Going forward, it requires a lot of planning and thinking but these problems can be overcome. The law enforcement agencies need to work together to map out new strategies on how to deal with the problem.”
“The best way is to make sure that this doesn’t happen again and for it to succeed, the security agencies need to step up their game,” Abdulsalami said.
They, however, implored governors to shun war of words against one another and embrace unity to end various challenges facing the country.