Panic in Abuja as bandits attack near Federal Government College Kwali

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3 years ago

Panic enveloped some schools located on the outskirts of the Federal Capital Territory on Monday following a reported attack on a community in Kwali, near the Federal Government College, in Sheda village, on the ever-busy Abuja-Lokoja highway.

The security breach prompted the Federal Government to promptly order the immediate closure of the FGC Kwali, which it said was also under threat by the bandits.

Students of the College were evacuated by their parents, who trooped to the school on Monday morning.

Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, directed the closure of the Collge in the early hours of Monday morning, saying the closure became necessary following a security breach on Sheda and Lambata Villages, suburbs of Kwali Area Council which also threatened FGC Kwali.

Director Press and Public Relations, Ben. Bem Goong, in a statement on Monday in Abuja, quoted the Minister as saying that the timely intervention of security Agencies saved the situation.

Adamu also directed that arrangements should be made for final year students to conclude their NECO examinations.

The Minister has also directed Principals of Unity Colleges across the country to liaise with security Agencies within their jurisdictions in order to forestall any security breach in our schools.

It was gathered that some parents flew in from Lagos and other parts of the country to evacuate their children after receiving calls that the College management directed parents to evacuate their wards.

“It was at 4 pm on Sunday when one of my daughters called me through her guardians’ phone that the management asked parents to rush down to evacuate their children because of threat by suspected bandits to attack the college,” one of the parents who came from Lagos said.

An official of the College, who is a member of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA), said the management directed parents to immediately evacuate their children because of the bandits’ attack on Sheda village.

“You know it is a fence that separates Sheda village from the school, and the attack by bandits on the village amid sporadic gunshots that Saturday, caused serious panic to both students and management,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Basic and Secondary Education, Senator Akon Eyakenyi, has tasked the various security agencies in the country to up their game in addressing the perennial security challenges, saying parents now fear sending their children to schools because of fear of kidnap.

She spoke on Monday in Abuja while leading other members of the committee on monitoring the ongoing 2022 National Personnel Audit being conducted nationwide by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).

Eyakenyi said: “The insecurity in the nation helps every day to get children out of school, particularly in the Northern part of Nigeria. Children do not want to go to school because when they go, they are kidnapped and parents do not want to send their children back to school again. That helps to increase the number of out-of-school children,” she said.

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