*Rights group asks: “Where is the N595bn intelligence budget?”
The early-morning attack on the Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, in Danko Wasagu Local Government Area of Kebbi State, and the abduction of scores of students by terrorists, has exposed the Federal Government’s failed promises on school safety, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has declared.
In a statement signed by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko, the group described the attack as proof that the much-publicised investment in the nation’s school security architecture “is nothing but propaganda.”
HURIWA also queried the whereabouts of the “whopping N595 billion reportedly budgeted for the intelligence community in 2024.”
”We call on the heads of the security institutions, the armed forces, the Department of State Services and the Nigeria Police Force, to immediately activate mechanisms to chase these terrorists, rescue the hostages who are our daughters, arrest, neutralise or decimate the terrorists abductors or bring them to swift justice.
”We urge the government to put foolproof and sustainable security and intelligence gathering initiatives all across the country to prevent reoccurrence of such a dastardly crimes of mass abduction of students. Those who kidnap students are terrorists and must be dealt with in accordance with the extant counter terrorism law of the Federation. Government must realise that the primary duty it owes the citizens is to protect their lives and property from wanton terrorists attacks and mass killings,” HURIWA affirmed.
The rights group said the incident has invalidated earlier boasts by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, who in May claimed on Arise TV that the country had recorded no school abduction in 12 months due to the Tinubu administration’s “focused policies and security spending.”
Alausa had said the government’s central command centre under the Safe School Initiative was sufficient deterrence.
“I am the chief education officer of Nigeria now and I would tell you that no abduction has occurred in schools in the last 12 months… This is due to the clear, focused government policies of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu,” he insisted.
But HURIWA, reacting to the Kebbi attack, said the minister’s claims have now “fallen flat,” stressing that government prefers rhetoric to real investments in intelligence, manpower and protection for school children.
Local accounts revealed that the terrorists struck around 4:00 a.m., killing a staff member and injuring a security guard before escaping with several girls. Residents believe the attackers “have not gone far,” and urged both state and federal authorities to act before the abductors vanish.
HURIWA reminded the government of previous mass school abductions in Kebbi, including the June 17, 2021 invasion of Federal Government College, Birnin Yauri, where over 80 students and five teachers were taken.
The group expressed frustration that, despite similar tragedies in Borno, Kaduna, Yobe and other states, Nigeria has “learnt nothing,” insisting that “preventive law enforcement is far better than reactive pursuit after terrorists have done damage.”
”We wonder why the National Assembly members go to bed once they approved the massive budgets for security and intelligence community without carrying out efficient oversight functions… There is a story making the rounds that the law makers deliberately undermine their oversight functions by compromising with the security heads because of pecuniary benefits,” HURIWA alleged.