Katsina mass abduction: Outrage over president Buhari’s failure to visit school, 333 still missing, says governor

Prominent groups and Nigerians from different walks of life, on Sunday, took a swipe at President Buhari over Friday’s abduction of students of the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State.

Most of those who reacted said Buhari had failed and said they were shocked that the President had not visited the school despite the fact that he is in Katsina State on a weeklong vacation.

Those, who commented on the abduction of the students and Buhari’s inaction, included the Coalition of Northern Groups; the Middle Belt Forum; the Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin; the Pan Niger Delta Forum; and the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

Also, on Sunday, several Nigerians took to the social media to lambast the President for failing to visit the school.

However, the Presidency, through the Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said its focus was how to quickly resolve the issue thrown up by the abduction of the students, and not politics.

Shehu said this in a telephone interview with one of Punch correspondents, who sought to know from him when Buhari was planning to visit the school.

In responding, the presidential aide said, “As I speak to you, the Minister of Defence and the nation’s service chiefs just left the place.”

When told that Nigerians were already faulting the President for sending a delegation, while he is currently in the state, Shehu said, “Our focus is about resolving the issue. Leave us out of politics.”

The governor said 333 students had yet to be accounted for.

The governor stated, “The children so far kidnapped cut across the state, because the boarding school houses all children from all parts of the state and even some from outside the state.

“It has a population of 839 and so far, we have yet to account for 333 students. And we are still counting because more are coming out from the forest and we are calling through the numbers of those parents who have phone numbers to find out whether or not their children have gone back home. Because we have discovered that there are so many local governments that the children have gone back, but based on the available record, we are still searching for 333 students either in the forest or through their parents to ascertain the actual number that have been kidnapped.”

The governor said the bandits had yet to contact the government or anybody on the abduction of the students, and gave an assurance that efforts were being made to ensure their release.

Meanwhile, all schools in Katsina State were on Saturday directed to end the third term for the 2019/2020 academic session.

The schools, which were supposed to end the session next week, were directed to remain closed until further notice.

– Punch