ABEOKUTA – A Non-governmental organization, Child Protection Network (CPN) has decried the increasing rate of kidnap of school children in the country.
The group, at a press conference held at conference room of Penpushing media house in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital on Friday expressed dismay with the federal government’s nonchalant attitude to nip the menace in the bud.
Recall that, about 287 students and teachers were kidnapped from the LEA Primary School and the Government Secondary School, Kuriga, Kaduna State.
The bandits, last week have demanded N1bn for their release.
The hoodlums, who made the demand also gave a deadline that would elapse on March 27, 2024, for the payment of the ransom.
But the Federal Government, on Wednesday, said it would not pay “a dime” as ransom for the release of over 280 pupils and teachers kidnapped from the Government Secondary School and LEA Primary School at Kuriga, Kaduna State.
The Federal Government also said it had received offers of help from the United States and other countries to secure the student’s release and was weighing the offers.
Speaking with newsmen, the National Coordinator, Child Protection Network Nigeria (CPN), Olakunle Sanni, said despite N145billion budgeted for the Save School Initiative by the federal government, there was no end insight to the spate of kidnapping across schools in the country.
Sanni emphasized that, there was no significant change in the Save School Initiative despite the huge amount budgeted every year.
He noted that the kidnapping of school children would lead to an increasing rate of out-of-school children.
“This also not forgetting the recent event in Ekiti state where some school children were kidnapped alongside their teachers. There has been a pocket of kidnapping in some schools around the country particularly in conflict zones. This is a concern to us especially at a time when the federal government has budgeted almost N145billion naira for save schools to ensure that our children are safe. This is a great concern.
“But this has not been we’ll utilized, but yet, we have not been any significant change in the safety of our children and this has serious implications because it will lead to increasing number of children out of school. It means that many parents will pull their children out of school when they know their children are not safe and the environment is not secure for their children.
“What this implies is that, many people will grow up to become adults uneducated and not able to contribute meaningfully in the society.
“When these children are adopted and government is not doing anything about it, it means that in the nearest future we are going to have another set of kidnappers and insurgents because when they are abducted they are groomed to become another Boko Haram.
“Despite huge amount of money for DSS, Army, Police, we are not safe yet, our children are not safe. This is unacceptable. No one is talking about it. 280 children are missing and we remain silent as if nothing happened.”
CPN, therefore, called on the federal government to work assiduously at ensuring that the children are released unharmed as soon as possible.
