The Incentive Based Program (IPB) of Policy House International has expressed its disgust over the recent abduction of students by suspected bandits from the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara district in Katsina state.
This was made known in a statement issued by the Executive Director, Incentive-Based Program, Taiwo F. Akerele in Abuja.
According to him, his organization is appalled by the recent development in Katsina State where several hundreds of schoolboys were reportedly kidnapped.
He said the act is highly reprehensible, insensitive, and inhuman. “We are pained and distraught that while we are working hard to encourage parents to bring their kids back to school in the Nigeria North East especially on the backdrop of UNICEF’s estimated 10.5million out of school children in Nigeria, (a figure we dispute), this happened again right in our very eyes. This is indeed a minus in our quest to encourage and build confidence in the educational environment in the region through the incentive framework we have adopted.
“We call on the Nigerian government to do everything within its powers to get these kids released safely and unhurt back to school and get re-united with their parents. We must not the Chibok experience and embarrassment repeat itself again. Negative history should not be allowed to repeat itself in Nigeria. The Nigerian government must provide adequate security in all the schools in the Northern region to foster confidence and peaceful/conducive learning environment henceforth.
“The Incentive Based Program is presently working with relevant partners to encourage over 450,000 parents in the North East bring back their kids to school based on an arranged incentive framework that will encourage agriculture, small and medium scale enterprises, grant and cash support across some selected states affected by the Boko Haram scourge,” he concluded.
Packaged by Oludotun Ajibola
