EXCLUSIVE: How FG Will Protect Schools From Bandits – Ministry Of Education

The Federal Ministry of Education has explained the measures being taken to improve security in schools and protect students from armed bandits.

The Director of Press and Public Relations for the Ministry, Ben Bem Goong, mentioned this in an interview with THE WHISTLER while responding to questions on kidnap of school children.

About 140 students were reportedly kidnapped from Bethel College in Kaduna two days ago, in what is the latest case of school kidnapping.

Official figures show that more than 939 school children had been abducted in the north alone during the first half of this year.

Goong said the ministry was working to support the effort of the military to make schools, especially the Unity schools safe.

“These bandits come in large numbers. So, we have set up a committee for recommendations on how we can establish a security architecture around the schools, particularly the vulnerable schools in the Northern part of Nigeria so that the security architecture will serve as an alarm raiser whenever there is movement of bandits”, he said.

He described the security architecture as a non-military measure which he said would be more  effective.

The spokesman said the plan is to replicate what the ministry of aviation had done by establishing a communication architecture in such a way that it knows the flight paths of all planes in transit and get the communication contacts of all security agencies along that flight path.

This is to make deployment for emergency situations easier and faster.

“Around our unity colleges, we’re going to have communication architecture in such a way that for five, ten bandits to move to any of our unity colleges, through our communication network, they are likely to be intercepted or to be exposed,” he stated..

He said churches and mosques surrounding the schools will be involved as well as vigilantes and the security agencies.

“All the security personnel will have certain phone numbers of one another so that once you witness any movement they will be notified.

“It has proven very potent in Aviation. So if you see five people moving suspiciously, all you need do is put a call across to inform the next port of call, whether it is the next civil defense man, the next policeman, the next police station, whatever formation. It could also be the next chief, imam or pastor, whoever is on the line”, he said.

Goong explained that as soon as the communication infrastructure is activated, the environs would be made aware of some suspicious movement around, which would make it difficult for the kidnappers and bandits to operate.   

He disagreed with the notion that the bandits have more sophisticated weapons than the security operatives in the country.

“I disagree with those who say bandits have more sophisticated weapons than our law enforcement agencies. People have made such postulations in the past and I disagree.

“It is just that we have not paid attention, in terms of alerting each other as quickly and rapidly as we can whenever there is suspicious activity. If we pay attention to these, bandits themselves will know that they are not safe”, he said.

He said the proposed measure has more to do with the people taking self-responsibility than the government.

“This is not about the government; it is about the people taking ownership, and self-responsibility that security lies with them.

“Their safety and that of their children, whether they are in our schools or elsewhere lies with them”, he said.

Goong however said that the Education ministry does not have much role to play in securing the school children in the country.

He said the ministry is only responsible for the 110 Unity Colleges and its students, adding that only one of the colleges has been attacked.

“Only 1 unity school has been attacked and that is Federal Government College Birnin Yauri in Kebbi state.

“Yes, other schools have been attacked, but these are schools that are not under the ambit of the federal government. So, it would be out of place for us to start speaking about schools that we do not have responsibility for, particularly the responsibility for securing them”, he said.

Goong said that it is the duty of the military and the security agents to secure the schools and that until unity is restored schools would be unable to teach.

“It is the duty of the military and the security agencies; it is when there is peace that we can teach. We cannot deploy soldiers, we can only request for them, which we had done days before the attacks and received an increase in the number of soldiers.

“When we suspected bandit activities around that place, we made the request and the number of placement around that place increased from 10 to 27. So we received the additional placements, but we cannot talk about the activities of these people because they do not report to the ministry of education”, he said.

When asked if students of schools that have been shut due to the insecurity have been redistributed to other schools to continue their education, he said “They are at home.”