Kidnappings: Establish Safe School Response Center — FG tells state governments

The Federal Government has urged state governors to set up Safe School Response Coordination Centres to forestall attacks and kidnappings in schools.

The Minister of State for Education, Yusuf Sununu, made this appeal while inspecting facilities at the National Safe School Response Coordination Centre located at the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, headquarters on Friday in Abuja.

Newspot reports that the National Safe School Response Coordination Centre was established by the Federal Government in February 2023 to enhance the security of schools and host communities.

The centre also coordinates security agencies and other critical stakeholders by receiving and referring complaints as well as maintaining emergency hotlines.

The lead agency of the project is NSCDC, which works in collaboration with other sister agencies.

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While inspecting the facilities, Sununu explained that education is critical to the development of the country; hence, an attack on the system would have a ripple effect on the nation.

Sununu called on state governors to take proactive steps to safeguard schools in their domain.

He said the inspection became imperative owing to the recent kidnapping of students and teachers in Sokoto and Kaduna States.

“Education is the key ingredient for individuals, communities and international organisations for rapid development.

“Nigeria is leading globally in areas of out-of-school children in spite of all investments in education; therefore, this attack is unacceptable.

“The abduction of schoolchildren by bandits is an attack on education that should not be condoned.

“We implore all the state governments in Nigeria to see how they can quickly, in the next few weeks, establish their own centre that will be directly connected to this centre,” he said.