The release of Turkish school students

ON  Wednesday, January 25, the eight students and two members of staff of the Nigerian-Turkish International School, Isheri, Ogun State, who were abducted on January 13, were released by their abductors. According to newspaper reports, the parents of the affected students parted with between N4 million and N10 million each to secure their release. The victims, who had spent 11 harrowing days in captivity, eventually regained freedom when their abductors dumped them behind the school fence, apparently overwhelmed by the approaching onslaught of the country’s security agencies. Following a directive by the Federal Government and with massive support from the Ogun State government, the leadership of the Nigeria Police, State  Security Services (SSS) and the Nigerian Army had worked assiduously to secure the release of the abducted students and their teachers and arrest the kidnappers. Happily, the victims, including a student suffering from a life-threatening disease, were released unhurt.

Since then, the police, working in concert with other security agencies, have arrested members of the kidnapping gang, recovered a substantial portion of the ransom paid by the distraught families, and secured confessional statements. The reunion of the abducted students and staff with their families apparently brought relief to the nation. Yet the story brought home forcefully, the fact that school students are increasingly becoming soft targets for kidnappers and that the premises of secondary schools in the country, particularly those attended by the children and wards of the noveaux riches, are now far from being hallowed ground.

Kidnapping is a deadly monster that has defied every effort to tame it since Niger Delta militants took to abducting expatriate workers of the multinational oil companies in the region early in the life of the current republic ostensibly to drive home their message on the need for the government to tackle the environmental degradation, poverty and governmental neglect of the area, but the fact that boarding houses are increasingly being turned into theatres of war by armed bandits calls for sober reflection. At the very least, it should force the security apparatus of the Nigerian state to rethink its anticrime strategies.

Government at all levels owes school students and their teachers a duty of care and protection. It is thus saddening that school proprietors who pay different forms of taxes and also arrange for private security on their premises are being subjected to the harrowing effects of the failure of the state to effectively perform its core duty of safeguarding lives and property.  While it is cheering news that the students abducted in Ikorodu, Lagos State and recently in Isheri, Ogun State were released unhurt and their kidnappers arrested by the police, it would be simplistic to assume that there have been happy endings and nothing more.

If anything, the pains inflicted on the psyche of the young and impressionable students could be long-lasting unless serious efforts are made to rehabilitate and assure them that the experiences they went through in the kidnappers’ den would not become a regular feature of life in their fatherland. Leaving such vulnerable students unattended to after their ordeal can certainly spell doom for the nation. In this regard, every effort should be made by school counselors, parents and the relevant departments of the security agencies to provide moral comfort for the students, because the scars left on the psyche of young people by such incidents do not heal easily.

Another point thrown up by the recent sad stories of kidnapping in secondary schools is the need to heighten the security arrangements put in place in such schools, in such a way that future kidnapping incidents would become virtually impossible. In this connection, school proprietors should ensure constructive engagement with the security agencies, neighbourhood vigilance and security outfits and members of local communities, not least because of the Nigerian culture of good neighbourliness and cooperation.  Government, on its own part, must find a way of getting useful information from local communities and use local hunters where applicable in tracking down kidnappers.

We commend the professionalism displayed by the security agencies in tracking down the Isheri kidnappers and the efforts of the Federal Government and the Ogun State government to secure the release of the abducted students and their teachers. It is our fervent hope that the perpetrators of the dastardly incident will get their just deserts.