The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to go all out to secure freedom for the about 600 students allegedly kidnapped by gunmen at the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State.
The party stated this, yesterday, at a news conference addressed by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan.
The publicity secretary urged the First Citizen as the commander-in-chief, “who promised to lead from the front, to account for the abducted students, as the large-scale abduction happened a few hours after the President and his security machinery took over the state.”
He said: “Our party holds as perplexing that at a time the people of Katsina should have heaved a sigh of relief because of his presence, the abduction happened right under Mr. President’s nose; in his home state, where he had gone holidaying.
“This development has further exposed the failure of President Buhari to manage high level security intelligence that ought to accompany a presidential visit.
“The PDP notes as distressing that President Buhari, who refused to honour an invitation by the House of Representatives for a collective deliberation on security, could abandon his duty post for a holiday, leaving our national flanks open for terrorists, bandits, vandals, and insurgents.
“The time of the attack buttresses the fact that President Buhari, as the commander-in-chief, is totally incapable of securing our nation; the very reason there have been widespread calls by patriotic Nigerians that he should resign.
“This insolence of Mr. President towards issues of national security compelled our caucus in the House of Representatives to demand for his impeachment.
“Our party believes that if President Buhari had listened to wise counsel as proffered by the PDP and other patriotic Nigerians, including the two chambers of the National Assembly to rejig the nation’s security architecture, our situation would not have deteriorated to this sorry state.
“Moreover, this particular abduction in the President’s home state, under his watch, raises further serious questions over this government’s capacity to fight insurgency.
“This is more worrisome as the state government had been known to have established contacts with, as well as pampering bandits, which Mr. President had not condemned.
“The PDP demands that President Buhari should immediately quit his needless holidaying in Daura and go in search of, and rescue the abducted students, particularly having earlier admitted that issue of security is his exclusive responsibility.
“Our party sympathizes with the people of Katsina State, particularly the parents of the kidnapped students, who have been subjected to harrowing experience occasioned by the incompetence of the Buhari administration.
“The PDP, working in concert with other patriotic Nigerians will not rest until President Buhari finds and returns each of these students.
“The PDP urges Nigerians to remain alert and prayerful as the nation wades through this nightmare under an insensitive, inept and uncoordinated administration.”
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari revealed, yesterday, that the bandits who attacked students of Kankara Government Science Secondary School have been located.
He said they have been located at their hideout at Zango-Paula Forest in the area, and an operation was apace to free the abducted students.
According to a briefing he received from Katsina State Governor, Hon Aminu Masari, and the Army Chief of Staff, Lt-Gen Tukur Buratai, the military, supported by air power, has located the bandits’ enclave.
“There has been exchange of fire in an ongoing operation”, Buhari said in a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President, Garba Shehu.
Buhari, who arrived Katsina on a weeklong visit, strongly condemned the attack on the school.
He charged the Army and the police to go after the attackers to ensure that no student gets missing or harmed, Shehu quoted the president as saying.
The President urged the school authorities to carry out an audit of the population of the students following shootings in and around the school that sent hundreds of them fleeing and scrambling over perimeter walls.
Parents who rushed to the school and removed their children and wards were also required to notify the school and police authorities in order to have a full account of the school population.