By Adamu Suleiman, Sokoto

To avert recurrence of last week’s abduction of students and teachers of the Federal Government College (FGC) Birnin-Yauri, the Kebbi State government is taking proactive steps in this regard.

To this end, no fewer than seven schools in Kebbi State had been closed down indefinitely. This is according to the state Chairman of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), Isah Arzika who was quoted to have stated so.

Schools affected by the decision, Arzika said, were those sited on the frontlines of vulnerable areas of the state believed to be the soft target of suspected bandits’ attacks.

He confirmed that the frontline schools had since been shut; noting that the move was a proactive measure to further prevents a repeat of the FGC, Birnin-Yauri’s incident.

Arzika also said the state the government had directed all school headteachers to close any schools which they believed are not safe.

He, however, pointed out that the proactive measures have the involvement of all of us as stakeholders and part of the system.

Arzika continued: “The government has given us an order and option to take any necessary action as far as our schools are concerned. That we can close those schools which we think are not safe and prone to attacks in the areas close to the forest.

“I am not talking about only boarding schools, any school that is on the frontline areas and not safe, we would just ask the students to go home, pending the time the situation normalises.

“Before now, the state government had recruited a large number of vigilante members to complement the police attached to some of the schools by looking over them which is a satisfactory step taken by the state government.

On the recent abduction of FGC Birnin-Yauri victims, Arzika urged parents to remain calm and seek divine intervention.

However, at first contact with the bandits, the NUT Chairman said no ransom was demanded but only ensured contact were made with parents of the abductees to notify that their children were with them.

“They collected the contacts of parents and teachers from the abductees  made calls to tell them that their children and people were with them.  only said they wanted to establish contact that the abductees are in their custody,” Arzika said.