Kaduna commissioner: How we foiled recent attacks on schools

Samuel Aruwan, commissioner for internal security and home affairs in Kaduna, says the “machinery” put in place by the state to address attacks on schools has yielded results.

There have been attacks on some schools in Kaduna state in recent times.

In March, gunmen attacked the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Igabi LGA of the state and abducted 39 of the students.

The abductees spent 59 days in captivity before they were freed on May 5.

In a related development, gunmen attacked Greenfield University, a private institution in the state, and kidnapped 20 students and three non-academic staff.

Five of the students were killed, while the remaining victims were released on Saturday.

Speaking on the challenges affecting the state, Aruwan said the government has put in place “machinery” to improve the security situation in communities where schools are located.

The commissioner spoke with Arise TV on Monday.

He also said the “machinery” has helped in thwarting recent kidnap attempts on some schools.

“Immediately we had problems in neighbouring states where students were abducted, we embarked on an aggressive vulnerability assessment of our schools across the state,” he said.

“Most of the schools that are located in high-risk areas, the students were redistributed to schools that are in safe locations across the states.

“Then, we also set up machinery on the ground that raises the consciousness of the school community, including students. It may interest you to know that some of the machinery on the ground helped foil about two or three attempts that were made to kidnap students.”

Some of the parents of the abducted Greenfield University students had accused the Kaduna government of not doing much on rescuing the students, but Aruwan dismissed the claims, saying the state had been on top of the situation.

He said the government also made efforts to rescue the students, but the brutality of the perpetrators hindered the attempts.

“Many attempts were made towards rescuing the students but a lot of things happened, considering the fact three students were first killed. A lot of things happened that have to do with saving lives,” he said.