School Kidnapping Also Takes Place In Developed Countries Like America – Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has said that the kidnapping of students in schools takes place even in the most developed countries of the world including the United States of America.

Mohammed stated this Channels TV on Monday, while reacting to the abduction of students and staff of Government Science College, Kagara in Niger State by bandits.

According to him, abduction of Schoolchildren are not peculiar to Nigeria alone, adding that the US witnessed three or four school kidnappings last year.

The minister said that kidnappers know that the abduction of school children will get global attention, but Nigeria cannot turn all its schools into barracks.

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“Even in the most developed countries of this world, school kidnapping takes place. Last year, in the US, we all witnessed three of four school kidnappings, and that is in probably one of the most developed countries in the world, ” Mohammed said.

“The thing about terrorism is that the terrorists don’t live by your own rules and they are especially interested in soft targets. They know that what is going to get global attention is kidnapping school children.

“We must be careful; we can’t turn all our schools into barracks. What is important is intelligence gathering, surveillance rather than the physical presence of the soldiers or policemen.

“We are dealing with people who don’t think like me and you, we are dealing with people who don’t have any rules of engagement, we are dealing with people whose motivation is completely different from mine and yours. And anywhere in the world, this is how terrorists operate but the most important thing is to learn from what is happening and adapt.”

Meanwhile, there are unconfirmed reports that the federal government had paid a sum of N800 million to bandits for the release of the abducted Kagara students and staff.