There is growing concern over the rising incidence of kidnapping in schools across Nigeria. For example, in February 2016, three girls were abducted from Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary in Lagos; and only last month, in neighbouring Ogun State, three students and five female members of staff were abducted from Nigerian Tulip International College (formerly called Turkish International School).
Many have wondered why schools – particularly secondary schools – hold such attraction for kidnappers, especially since there are countless other places young people of school-age can be found moving freely and unguarded.
While most of those who spoke with Nigerian Tribune identified the 2014 abduction of over two hundred schoolgirls in Chibok as a possible trigger for the menace, the National Coordinator of Society of Educational Administrators of Nigeria (SEAN), Mr Babatunde Asenuga, however, said kidnap of Nigerian schoolchildren predates the country’s independence in 1960.
“Kidnapping in schools began before the independence of Nigeria,” Asenuga told Nigerian Tribune on Monday. “It happened in our localities, where, when children went to school, kidnappers snatched them. They were used for slavery and rituals and other things.
“But recently, due to the rate of unemployment in Nigeria, kidnapping has been ‘legalised illegally’. It seems it has come to stay. People see it as a source of quick money. And this has a bad psychological effect on the kids. It is a demonic act, because it the work of the devil.”
Tuition
Asenuga, however, noted that a major motivation for the practice is “financial reward”, and that it is for this reason that children of the rich are almost always the target.
“The reasons they are going after schoolchildren are many. Even though we know that abductors of Chibok girls are against Western education which they described as ‘evil’, we are also aware that the major targets these days are the children of the rich.
“As children of the rich, they are targeted because of their parents’ wealth. In some of these schools their students pay as much as 1 million naira, even in this recession. So, kidnappers know that if they can kidnap these children, the school would want to protect its name, so the school would pay. And even if the school cannot afford it, the parents would pay.”
Also echoing most of these thoughts, the Director of Kayode Memorial Schools, Ajangbadi, Ojo, in Lagos, Mr Femi Kayode Akinmegha, said schools known to be charging high fees are easy prey for kidnappers.
“The major attraction is the high fees they collect, and the calibre of students and pupils, because you know that schools that charge high have students and pupils from rich parents.”
Akinmegha, however, maintained that with “extra vigilance”, parents and school administrators can help stem the tide.
“No stranger should be allowed into the school premises,” Mr Akinmegha said. “The parents should be the ones to actually pick up their children themselves. The school should not allow strangers around the school building and students who are going home on the school bus should be monitored till they are dropped off at home.”
Porosity
According to the National Secretary of All Nigeria Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPPS), Mr Amos Adekunle Aladeseye, many schools, particularly public ones, do not even have fences. The result, according to him, is a situation where people move in and out of the schools, at any time, without attracting any notice.
“The problem these days is that most of the schools are porous. They don’t have perimeter fencing. And that is a capital project, and no school principal can do it, except the government or a philanthropist intervenes.
“Let’s consider what happened in Ogun State. Even though it is a private school, and they have a fence, and they have everything, it still happened. Now imagine what the situation would have been in a school where there is no fence at all. We should appeal to major stakeholders to help, including the PTA. Schools cannot always rely on the government.
“We have problems; serious ones. Sometimes, even when the parents are ready to help, government would not allow it. They would be asked to go and write a letter; they would write, but there would be no response. A whole year would even pass, and there would be no response, still. I am therefore appealing to all philanthropists, all PTAs, and all major stakeholders, to go to the aid of schools.”
Improved security
Mr Felix Olorundamilola, a retired military officer, and Managing Director of SSV Protection Services said the attacks on schools are likely going to continue because many of them are sited in “isolated places.”
He, however, advised owners of such schools to invest heavily in security equipment and personnel.
“From my own understanding of the terrain, it is not going to be the last, because those schools are located in isolated areas, and these are soft targets.
“There is no way government can secure all the schools in Nigeria. So what the schools can do is to monitor their premises. The schools themselves must invest in their own security. Because they are isolated, they cannot hope to quickly get help from law enforcement agencies. There is probably nothing they can do about their locations because they are already sited there. But they should invest in their own security.
“There are electronic gadgets that can monitor the schools, so that you can view any unwanted intruder on camera even an hour before they can compromise your perimeter. That way, you can plan your counter-attack or call for rescue before they can breach the perimeter fence.”
Death penalty
The Lagos State Government recently signed a law that made kidnapping an offense punishable by death.
Mr Asenuga, speaking on the import of this law, said it would deter perpetrators of the crime from targeting schools in Lagos; he urged other States to pass similar laws.
“Thank God for the Lagos State Government that signed it into law that anybody caught for kidnapping would be killed. Other states should also emulate the Lagos State policy, because if a kidnapper knows that he would be killed if he is caught, it would discourage him, and others as well.
“Beyond the death penalty, attempts should also be made by governments to create jobs, because it is the idle hand that is the devil’s workshop.
“If you are busy with your daily work, you would not think of looking for quick money that you would get from kidnapping and blackmailing.”
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