LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – Ahmed Audi, the Commandant-General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), has condemned terrorists’ attacks on schools in the North East.
He spoke in Abuja at the flag-off of the National Schools Security and Emergency Response Centre, with the mandate to ensure schools across the country are secure.
During the launch of the centre, which is domiciled at the NSCDC National Headquarters, Audi said: “Statistics, however, show that about 2,295 teachers have been killed and 19,000 others displaced in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states between 2009 and 2018 alone while an estimate of 1,500 schools had been destroyed since 2014, with over 1,280 casualties among teachers and students.
“These violent attacks have negative effects on teaching and learning, thereby reversing our sustainable national development efforts.”
In view of the importance of education and human capital development to the overall national development, Audi stated that it had become expedient for the Federal Government to deploy extraordinary measures to tackle the spate of attacks on school facilities in Nigeria.
He said: “Accordingly, in the consideration for a multi-sectoral working group, the NSCDC has been made the lead agency with the mandate to host the National Safe Schools Response and Coordination Centre.
“Following this responsibility, I immediately convened a technical committee composed of personnel of the NSCDC and consultants to develop strategies for the effective and efficient implementation of the National Plan on Safe Schools across the country.
“The committee has been working assiduously towards the production of a Standard Operating Procedure, SOP, for this national project.”
The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Shuaibu Belgore, said the government was determined to make the schools safe for students and teachers again.