A protest against the abduction of schoolchildren breaks out in Katsina
A wave of protests continued to shake the city of Kankara, from where alleged gunmen abducted an unknown number of students from the state science high school on Friday night.
Some women and youth in Kankara took to the streets on Sunday morning demanding the immediate release of their children, even as the Northern Groups Coalition threatened to mobilize Katsin residents for ongoing street protests if the government did not protect them. release of students from students in a timely manner.
“Should the government fail to rescue the missing students promptly, the Northern Groups Coalition will not hesitate to mobilize hundreds of thousands on the streets of Katsina State for continuous protests until the students are fully rescued, even if it costs us our lives.” the group said at a press conference in Katsin on Sunday.
Northwest group coordinator Jamilu Caranchi said he feared the disappearance of some 400 students following the bandit attacks, a development he called the culmination of the state government’s failure to deal with “major problems, including a collapsing economy, growing poverty and even greater anxiety, disastrous a security situation that has had a huge impact on lives and property.
“The culmination of these security challenges has turned the entire state into a house of horror in recent years, with daily reports of violent killings, displaced communities with formal and informal displacement camps scattered throughout the state.
“The deafening silence in the state regarding the suffering of our people is not only morally wrong, but also feeds, confirms and perpetuates the shortcomings of our political leaders.
“We owe our future generations to continue to act within the law in the hope that things will change for the better.”
The group also accused the federal government, led by President Muhammadu Bukhari, of not acquitting him.
primary responsibility for protecting people’s lives and property.
Militants reportedly attacked the school on Friday around 10:30 pm, hours after Bukhari arrived in his state for a private visit.
Gov. Aminu Bello Masari, who visited the school on Saturday morning and received a briefing from the principal, said he could not establish the exact number of abducted students.
Kankara is one of eight out of 34 local government districts in the state that are reportedly under the control of bandits, cattle thieves and kidnappers.
As part of measures to control the threat of attacks from thugs, the Nigerian army in June 2020 formed a special team, Operation Sahel Sanity, based in Faskari, a border settlement between Katsina and Zamfar’s equally alarming state.
A recent report from the Justice Network indicated that the bandits killed a total of about 500 people, about 200 more were kidnapped and about 40,000 cattle in the local government of Kankar alone.
