By Ogalah Ibrahim
The Katsina State Authorities has ordered the rapid closure of all public faculties in response to escalating safety threats within the North-West.
The directive, issued Friday by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Training, prompted a mass return of scholars as boarding faculties throughout the state rapidly launched pupils to folks and guardians. Movies and pictures circulating on-line confirmed college students leaving faculty premises with their belongings shortly after the order was introduced.
Whereas the federal government has not but issued a proper assertion, the Commissioner for Primary and Secondary Training, Yusuf Jibia, confirmed the shutdown in an interview with DW Hausa. He described the motion as a precautionary measure following current assaults in neighbouring states.
“Solely examinations stay for our college students,” Jibia mentioned. “Now we have to behave now to forestall any doable assaults.”
Katsina shares a border with Kebbi State, the place gunmen kidnapped 26 schoolgirls from Authorities Ladies Complete Secondary Faculty, Maga, earlier this week. The state has witnessed related tragedies previously, together with the December 2020 Kankara abduction of over 300 college students, the August 2021 kidnapping of ten college students and a trainer in Faskari, and the January 2024 abduction of two feminine college students from Al-Qalam College.
The Katsina shutdown coincides with a resurgence of violent assaults throughout the North. In Niger State, gunmen stormed St. Mary’s Main and Secondary Faculty, Papiri, on Friday, abducting an unspecified variety of college students. Witnesses mentioned the attackers arrived on greater than 60 bikes and shot the college’s gatekeeper, who sustained severe accidents.
In Kwara State, bandits invaded a Christ Apostolic Church parish in Eruku, abducting no less than 30 worshippers and killing three folks. The abductors reportedly demanded ₦100 million per sufferer. In the meantime, 26 schoolgirls stay lacking in Kebbi State following Monday’s invasion of their faculty in Maga city.
Amid rising panic, the Nasarawa State Police Command dismissed experiences that two pupils had been kidnapped from St. Peter’s Academy, Rukubi, calling the declare false.
In response to the escalating disaster, President Bola Tinubu directed the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, to relocate to Kebbi to coordinate rescue operations. The president additionally postponed his deliberate journeys to Johannesburg and Angola.
The current spike at school assaults has intensified concern throughout northern communities, with residents and safety analysts urging stronger, coordinated measures to guard college students and different weak populations.
The put up Katsina shuts all public schools amid rising insecurity appeared first on Vanguard News.
