By John Ikani
The Northern Governors’ Wives Forum (NGWF) on Saturday expressed concern over worsening insecurity, especially kidnapping of schoolchildren in the region, warning that things cannot continue in such manner.
The forum also backed the policy to shut down schools in areas prone to insecurity, stressing that it was necessary to protect schoolchildren in the region.
The Chairperson of the NGWF and wife of Kaduna State governor, Hadiza El-Rufai, and Vice Chairperson and First Lady of Kwara State, Olufolake Abdulrazaq, expressed these views during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja.
El-Rufai noted that the wives of the governors “are determined to collaborate with the federal government to combat gender based violence and drug abuse.
“Closure of schools is a short term plan to tackle the kidnapping of school children. But the security agencies must do all it can to defeat the bandits for all children to return to schools in the long run.
“You do not put the children in danger by taking them to school. The bandits must be defeated at all cost. We cannot continue like this. We must defeat the bandits for children to go to school. The short term, you must shut down the schools.”
On her part, AbdulRazaq said the interactive session was to solicit the support of the media to enlighten the people on what the NGWF was doing.
She went on to note that the forum is also perfecting plans to tackle gender-based violence and drug abuse in the 19 northern states.
