The Federal Government has warned that schools in 14 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, face the risk of attacks by bandits and insurgents.
The National Coordinator of Financing Safe Schools in Nigeria, Hajia Halima Iliya, told the Punch on Sunday that data on at-risk schools has been collected for intervention.
Although Iliya did not disclose the specific states, the Commander of the National Safe Schools Response Coordination Centre, Hammed Abodunrin, revealed that they include Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Benue, Yobe, Katsina, FCT, Kebbi, Sokoto, Plateau, Zamfara, and three others.
Currently, 465 pupils, teachers, and women abducted in the past week remain in captivity, according to checks.
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Reports revealed that 15 pupils from an Islamiya school in Sokoto State were kidnapped on Saturday, less than 72 hours after 287 schoolchildren and teachers were abducted from the LEA primary school and the Government Secondary School in Kuriga, Chikun Local Government Area, Kaduna State.
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Fortunately, 28 of them escaped, leaving 259 still in captivity.
Prior to the Kaduna incident, 200 female Internally Displaced Persons were taken by terrorists in Borno State.
The women were kidnapped in Ngala, the headquarters of Gambarou Ngala, while collecting firewood in the bush.
On Sunday, reports indicated that nine of them had regained freedom, while 191 remained captive.
Also, penultimate Thursday, bandits abducted an undisclosed number of people in the Gonin-Gora community in the same Chikun LGA of Kaduna, leading residents to blockade the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway in protest.
