NLC asks FG to tackle insecurity, rescue abducted Kebbi schoolgirls

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has condemned the abduction of students by bandits in Kebbi state.

The pupils were kidnapped from the Government Girls Comprehensive Senior Secondary School (GGCSS) Maga on Monday.

The gunmen killed Hassan Yakubu Makuku, the vice principal, and abducted 25 students during the attack.

In a statement on Tuesday, Joe Ajaero, NLC president, said Kebbi has been among the few states in the federation where salaries, pensions, and other social interventions are regularly paid.

Ajaero lamented that promises made after the Chibok abductions have not prevented a recurrence, adding that “we are back to where we started”.

“Our hearts are with the students, their parents, people and government of Kebbi State,” the statement reads.

“Kebbi state has been among the few states in the federation where salaries, pensions and other social interventions are regularly done.

“It is equally a state where remarkable infrastructural development has been recorded almost effortlessly.

“The state is reputed to have taken pro-active security measures in light of its expansive land mass.

“These recorded strides were intended to better the lives of the citizens, reduce social tension, minimise economic pressure as well as reduce to the barest minimum incidences like this.

“That bandits struck with relative ease inspite of these measures points to something more worrying, something sinister, something we cannot readily put our finger on.”

While sharing in the pain and trauma of the victims, parents, and the governor, Ajaero called on the federal government to do more to secure the nation’s territory and protect its citizens.

“We, as a nation and as a people, need to be concerned as well as think out of the box,” he added.

“We had promised that after Chibok, it would not happen again, yet here we are to where we started.

“The Governor needs all the support he can get at this point in time. Bogus budgets do not seem to be working. What is wrong?

“We should be sufficiently concerned by the shrinking physical and psychological spaces in the polity.

“We demand the federal government, the sole custodian of our armed forces and majority holder of our economic resources, reflects more deeply.

“Today, the frontline states are facing the fire. Tomorrow we may not know what happens next.

“Let us, therefore, arise as a nation and as a people determined to confront this evil before it consumes us all.”