KATSINA: Release of Kankara schoolboys wonderful news, says Okonjo-Iweala

FORMER Nigerian Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has described the release of over 300 schoolboys abducted from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, as wonderful news.

Advising the government on what to do to forestall a repeat of such an unfortunate incident, Okonjo-Iweala said the government should revive the Safe School Initiative to ensure better protection for students.

The former minister made this known on Twitter last night.

“Return of Katsina boys is wonderful news!! Time to revive the #SafeSchool initiative and implement it comprehensively to protect our children,” she tweeted.

The Safe Schools Initiative was conceived as a response to children and schools affected by militants in the North-East states.

The programme was launched by the Government of Nigeria and the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, former UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, alongside the Nigerian Global Business Coalition for Education and private sector leaders in Abuja in May 2014.

The Safe School Initiative entails a combination of: transfer of secondary school students to other states; support to education in the IDP camps and pilot safe schools’ models including community mobilisation.

But over five years after the launch of this initiative, many more abductions and attacks have been carried out in several schools, especially in northern Nigeria.

The recent one being the one that happened in Kankara in Katsina State a week ago when gunmen on motorcycles attacked a government boarding school and abducted over 300 students.

The abduction happened hours after President Buhari arrived in Daura, Katsina for a week-long private visit.

Police, in the wake of the abduction, claimed they had rescued over 200 students, while Governor Aminu Masari of Sokoto State said they had started negotiations with the bandits that abducted the Kankara schoolboys.

He added that the boys were in Zamfara forest.

He, however, announced on Thursday that 344 schoolboys were released by bandits in Zamfara State.

The governor, who received the students on Friday when they arrived in Katsina from Zamfara, also said the schoolboys would receive proper medical attention before they are reunited with their families.