Police, DSS should step up measures to checkmate abduction in schools —Babalola

Against the backdrop of spate of abductions of students in schools, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, Mr Peter Babalola, on Monday, tasked the nation’s security agencies to step up measures aimed at curbing the menace.

He contended that there was crucial need for the police, the Department of State Security (DSS) and other security agencies, to explore their intelligence departments in nipping in the bud, any plot to carry out kidnapping of students and their teachers.

Babalola, in a statement issued by his media aide, Mr Busayo Afolabi, observed that the abduction of four students, teacher and Vice Principal of Lagos State Junior/Secondary Model School, Igbonla, Epe, Lagos state by suspected militants, which occurred after similar attack in a primary school in Ikorodu area of the state, had exposed vulnerability of schools in the country to security breaches.

According to him, such development was capable of discouraging younger generation from attending schools for the fear of being attacked; stressing that such worrisome incident would portray Nigeria as a country where rights of children are not fully protected.

While calling for an urgent solution to the increasing cases of abduction in schools, Babalola recalled that the kidnap of over 200 female secondary school students in Chibok, Borno State in year 2014, by the Boko Haram sect, had already created negative image for the country, saying all hands must be on deck to ensure effective security in Nigeria.