The federal government has said it had put necessary measures in place to ensure the security of all Nigerians, especially young school children, reiterating the there would no longer be instances of abduction of school children.
Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, give this assurance on Monday while speaking with State House Correspondents after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja.
He however noted that government is not oblivious of the possibility of instances of sabotage by elements with intents to embarrass the government.
It would be recalled that the Minister had over the weekend relayed President Buhari’s assurance that the abduction of more than 300 girls from Government Girls’ Science Secondary School (GGSSS), Jangebe, Zamfara State, would be the last of such incidents in the country.
He spoke when he was in Zamfara on Sunday, leading a high-powered federal government delegation to the state to assess the development and sympathise with the government and people of the state.
However, when asked if government had taken the likely reaction by elements opposed to the success of the administration into consideration, the Minister said President Buhari had been putting modalities in place to ensure that his assurance of security and safe schooling does not fail.
“To answer your question that those who do not mean well for the country, they can try to do it to embarrass government, by government saying it will be the last, by the grace of God. It’s a possibility, the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, has done everything possible to ensure safe schools.
“It has recently rejigged the national security architecture and it’s an ongoing exercise and everything that is possible to stop this, government is putting it in place and by special grace of God, it should be the last this country will see.
“Yes, there may be a possibility that some people will try to do it to embarrass government, but government has the resources to continue to give the best in terms of security in this country. We think, and we hope, but especially by the grace of God, that this will be the last that we’ll see in this country,” he reiterated.
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Asked what the security arrangements are to make schools safe and banish incidences of students abduction, he said “well, first and foremost, like I said, the government has put things in place to ensure safe schools, in partnership with the sub-nationals, in partnership with the people that are localised in those environments, including intelligence gathering, information gathering, you know, and then supply of equipment and weapons and so on, so forth, training and retraining of security personnel.
“Everything that is humanly possible by any government to put in place, to ensure security of lives and property, is being put together to ensure that this doesn’t happen. Like I said, it’s an ongoing thing and government is committed to it and will continue to do so,” he said.