Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele yesterday condemned in absolute terms the abduction of 87 students and teachers in Borno and Oyo states within 24 hours despite $30 million globally raised in 2014 to secure public and private schools across Nigeria.

Bamidele, also Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, added that the recent abduction accentuated the need to expedite the establishment of state police currently under consideration at the National Assembly.

He made the remarks in a statement by his Directorate of Media and Public Affairs yesterday; calling for concerted and strategic measures to make schools safe nationwide and tame the rising number of out-of-school children crisis. Suspected gunmen had abducted 45 students and teachers from Baptist Nursery and Primary School, Yawota, Community Grammar School and L.A Primary School in Esiele, in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State on Friday.

Similarly, within the same period, Boko Haram terrorists attacked Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School in Askira/Uba Local Government Area, Borno State, an invasion that culminated in the abduction of 42 students.

In his statement, Bamidele condemned the abduction, describing it as an attack on the future of Nigeria, thereby promising to speed up the creation of state police in order to complement the country’s current national security architecture.

According to him, the 10th National Assembly is currently at the phase of concluding the process of amending the 1999 Constitution to pave the way for the establishment of state police. Bamidele, however, explained that after the National Assembly had concluded its part, the proposal would be transmitted “to the State Houses of Assembly for consideration and scrutiny, which would require a two-thirds approval before the state police could come on stream.”

He, specifically, appealed to the sub-national governments and legislatures to see the state police proposal as an issue of strategic national importance that should not be subjected to partisan politics or ethno-religious consideration.

Before the state police became effective, the leader of the senate challenged both federal and state governments to embrace and implement the safe school initiative as a stop-gap measure to address the number of out-of-school children, currently standing at 18.3 million across the federation. He said the incessant abduction of students and teachers “is a tragic national concern that negates our national development indices.

We cannot and must not allow it to continue. At the National Assembly, we will rise against this trend and put an end to it through the instrumentality of legislation. “As soon as the National Assembly resumes plenaries on June 2, we will perfect all outstanding legislative initiatives that have been introduced to decisively address security challenges in the federation.

“One of such initiatives is the ongoing review of the 1999 Constitution that seeks to establish state police, which is now at an advanced stage. Another is the amendment of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 aimed at strengthening the system of consequence in the country’s justice sector and discouraging heinous crimes nationwide.”