Minister asks security agents to intensify search for abducted students
The Minister of State for Power, Alhaji Mohammed Wakil, has asked security agencies to intensify efforts at finding the remaining abducted students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.
Wakil, who stated this in a statement yesterday in Maiduguri, also urged other stakeholders to join hands with the security agencies in securing the release of the girls.
“I think that there is a need for concerted efforts to secure the release of the remaining students. There is also the need for a new strategy to contain attacks on soft targets such as schools and hospitals’’, he said.
He stressed that attention should henceforth be paid to schools, hospitals and other soft targets.
“As the insurgents are now avoiding well defended hard targets, we should design new approaches to securing identified soft targets.’’
The minister sympathised with the parents of the kidnapped female students.
He advised that an inventory of likely soft targets should be taken by relevant authorities and contingency plans put in place to secure exit routes in case of attacks.
“An alarm and warning system should be put in place in all likely soft targets across the conflict areas.
“This system will trigger early response and abort attacks as was the case of the foiled plans to attack the NNPC mega stations on Dambua-Biu road,’’ Wakil said.
He described the increasing assaults on innocent students as inhuman and unIslamic, saying that attacking women and children as part of a soft target strategy was condemnable and reprehensible.
Wakil appealed to insurgents to lay down their arms and enter into negotiation with the government for amicable resolution of whatever grievances they have. (NAN)