ABUJA — Former Vice President of Nigeria and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has called on President Bola Tinubu to step down, accusing his administration of a “woeful failure” on security following the mass abduction of school children in Oyo and Borno states.
In a strongly worded statement issued Thursday by his media office, Atiku demanded the immediate rescue of no fewer than 82 students and teachers taken in coordinated raids on May 15.
According to the statement, 42 school children were kidnapped in attacks on Government Day Secondary School, Mussa; Central Primary School; and the SUBEB Secondary School in Mussa town, Askira-Uba Local Government Area of Borno State. On the same day, over 40 students and teachers were abducted from Community High School, Ahoro-Esiele; Primary School, Esiele; and Yawota Baptist Nursery and Primary School in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, where a teacher was beheaded.
The children spent Children’s Day in captivity on Wednesday, Atiku noted, while the Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress administration “continues to make empty promises.”
“President Tinubu has no moral or political latitude to stay in Aso Villa a day longer if tens of hundreds of abducted citizens languish in captivity across the country,” Atiku said. “What type of government will allow non-state actors to turn its national territory into killing fields and a haven for kidnapping and extortion?”
The former vice president said the worsening insecurity poses a direct threat to Nigeria’s education system and makes a mockery of the so-called Safe Schools initiative. He argued that allowing terrorist abductions to drag on creates incentives for future attacks.
“Impunity makes the terrorists bolder and more determined to carry out future attacks,” Atiku said. “The citizens look up to the government for urgent and prompt interventions.”
He also called for the creation of special courts to speed up terrorism trials and the application of the death penalty for convicted terrorists, adding that capital punishment “cannot be effective if the government lacks the political will to promptly sign the death warrants.”
The ADC presidential candidate urged the Federal Government to move beyond official condemnations and take immediate rescue action, insisting that security “should not be treated as a political slogan.”
The Tinubu administration has yet to respond to Atiku’s demands as of press time.
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