Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar has declared that President Bola Tinubu has “failed woefully on security” and should vacate Aso Villa, as dozens of schoolchildren and teachers abducted in coordinated raids across two states remained in capacity.
In a statement issued on Thursday by his Media Office in Abuja, Atiku called on the Federal Government to expedite action on the safe release of the abducted victims and described the frequency of terrorist attacks on Nigerian soil as a national embarrassment.
Ex-VP spoke following the twin abductions on May 15, in which no fewer than 42 children were snatched from Government Day Secondary School, Mussa; Central Primary School; and a SUBEB Secondary School in Mussa town, Askira-Uba Local Government Area of Borno State.
On the same day, over 40 students and teachers were abducted from three schools in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State -Community High School, Ahoro-Esiele; a primary school in Esiele; and Yawota Baptist Nursery and Primary School,” the statement said. “A teacher was beheaded during the Oyo raid. The abducted children spent Children’s Day on Wednesday still in captivity.”
Atiku said the attacks made a mockery of the government’s Safe School Initiative and posed a direct threat to Nigeria’s education system.
“President Tinubu has no moral or political latitude to stay in Aso Villa a day longer if tens of hundreds of abducted citizens languish in captivity across the country,” he said. “What type of government will allow non-state actors to turn its national territory into killing fields and a haven for kidnapping and extortion?”
The Vice President argued that allowing terrorist abductions to drag on without swift resolution creates incentives for further attacks, emboldens criminal groups and erodes citizens’ confidence in the state’s ability to protect them.
He stressed that official condemnations were insufficient without prompt rescue action to back them up.
“Impunity makes the terrorists bolder and more determined to carry out future attacks. The citizens look up to the government for urgent and prompt interventions to banditry and terrorist attacks,” Atiku said.
