Lagos school kidnap: Deputy Governor visits school, says govt on top of situation

Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr. Idiat Oluranti Adebule, on Thursday, visited Igbonla Senior and Junior Model College in the suburb of Epe, Lagos State, where a gang of suspected Ijaw militants kidnapped four students, a vice principal and a head teacher.

She assured that government would work assiduously to ensure prompt rescue of the victims.

Adebule, who was accompanied by top government functionaries and head of security agencies to the school, condemned the act, but pleaded with parents and families of the victims to cooperate with government and security agencies in ensuring prompt rescue of the victims.

The Deputy Governor, while addressing hundreds of parents who had come to the school to take away their children, said such would not help the situation as panicking would further compound the situation.

“It is true that in the last 29 years that this school was established, we have never experienced such a thing like this, but now that it has happened and it is confronting us, we must come together to find a lasting solution to it. We, as government, parents, the school and security agencies, must remain united to solve this problem.

“I know you are angry, I know you are worried and I know you are agitated, but we must look for solution. But I plead for the understanding of parents in this matter. I know how traumatic it could be, I know how emotional the issue we are discussing could be, but the best we can do is to handle it with care and with utmost wisdom that God can give us.

“It is God who secures, it is God who protects and even in other climes where you have everything, you still have this type of incursion once in a while, but what we should be talking about is how can we collectively solve this problem,” Adebule said.

She assured that the state government would do everything humanly possible to ensure the rescue of the victims, assuring that a team of security operatives would stay behind in the school to secure the students and teachers.

She also revealed that all security agencies including the Police, Air Force, Navy, the Army and others had been fully mobilized to ensure rescue of the victims, just as she expressed confidence in the success of the ongoing rescue operation.