Zamfara Governor closes all boarding schools over students abduction as Buhari warns bandits
By Our Editor
Zamfara State Governor, Bello Mohammed, has announced the closure of all boarding schools in the State following Friday’s abduction of over 300 school girls of Government Girls’ Science Secondary School Jangebe in Talata Marafa Local Government Area of the State.
The Governor gave the directive during a statewide broadcast, assuring people of the state of his administration’s commitment to rescue the abducted school girls unhurt.
Governor Mohammed said two police aircraft have been deployed to the Jangebe community in search of the abducted students of the Government Girls’ Science Secondary School, Jangebe.
Meanwhile President Muhammadu Buhari has described the latest abduction of hundreds of students of Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe in Zamfara State as inhumane and totally unacceptable, sending out a strong warning to bandits and their sponsors.
Reacting to the incident on Friday, President Buhari said his administration will not succumb to blackmail by bandits who target innocent school students in the expectations of huge ransom payments.
According to the President, “no criminal group can be too strong to be defeated by the government,” adding that, “the only thing standing between our security forces and the bandits are the rules of engagement.”
“We have the capacity to deploy massive force against the bandits in the villages where they operate, but our limitation is the fear of heavy casualties of innocent villagers and hostages who might be used as human shields by the bandits,” he said, stressing that “our primary objective is to get the hostages safe, alive and unharmed.”
President Buhari in a statement issued by his senior special assistant on media and publicity Garba Shehu noted that “a hostage crisis is a complex situation that requires maximum patience in order to protect the victims from physical harm or even brutal death at the hands of their captors.”
He warned the bandits: “Let them not entertain any illusions that they are more powerful than the government. They shouldn’t mistake our restraint for the humanitarian goals of protecting innocent lives as a weakness or a sign of fear or irresolution.”
