Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima has met with stakeholders of Kuriga community and Chikun Local Government Area (LGA), and assured them and Kaduna state government that the 287 teachers and students abducted from GSS Kuriga and LEA Primary School Kuriga on Thursday will be returned to their parents alive.
Speaking at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim Government House Kaduna when he paid a condolence visit to Kaduna state on Saturday, the Vice President said President Bola Tinubu was pained by the heinous incident and has tasked security agencies to leave no stone unturned in ensuring the rescue of the students and teachers from their kidnappers and safe return to their parents.
“I’m here on the behest of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to solidarise with the government and people of Kaduna state ove the sad incident of kidnapping of our students. The President was personally pained by what happened and he has instructed the security agencies to return our kids back to their parents,” the Vice President said.
“Leadership requires sacrifice but be rest assured that the president is equal to the task. The essence of government is to secure lives and properties of the people. The entire security has been tasked to ensure that safe return of the children,” Shettima said.
The Vice President however, tasked the media to support government in this difficult task of ensuring safe release of the school children by being more circumspect in their reports and reporting in a way that would not jeorpadize the safe return of the captives.
Governor Uba Sani in his remarks said government and security agencies have been working assiduously to ensure the safe return of the students and teachers.
“Since the incident, President Bola Tinubu, the Vice President as well as security agencies have been working closely with Kaduna state government to ensure the safe return of the children.
“We have been working with the community and Chikun local government to collaborate with security agencies to ensure all the students return back safely. We have to approach the issue strategically we cannot allow anyone to jeorpadize the safe return of the children. We are making progress. We are not going to say what we are doing because what is important to us is the safe return of the children,” the governor said.
The Vice President and Governor Uba Sani later went into a closed door meeting with the Etsu Gbagyi, the traditional leaders of Chikun LGA and Kuriga community, as well as other top government officials.
