Breaking: Atiku Breaks Silence Over Abduction of NECO Officials, Students
- Atiku Abubakar condemned the abduction of students, a school principal and a NECO ad hoc official during an ongoing examination in Kogi State
- Atiku's spokesperson Phrank Shaibu said the attack is part of a wider pattern in which schools have become preferred targets for armed criminals
- The former vice president demanded the immediate rescue of all abducted victims and a comprehensive review of security at all examination centres nationwide
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has strongly condemned the kidnapping of students, the principal of Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc official in Kogi State, calling the incident evidence that the Nigerian government has abandoned its core duty to protect lives and safeguard the education of its children.
This was contained in a statement cited by Legit.ng on Wednesday, July 15, and issued by Phrank Shaibu, Atiku's Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, on behalf of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate.
Source: Getty Images
"An examination hall should be a sanctuary of hope, not a crime scene. A school principal should be preparing students for the future, not negotiating with kidnappers. A NECO official should be supervising examinations, not struggling for survival in the hands of bandits. Yet this has become the grim reality under a government that has normalised insecurity," Atiku said.
Schools as targets under Tinubu administration
Atiku argued that the Kogi attack is not an isolated event but part of a dangerous national trend, linking it directly to what he described as the Tinubu administration's devaluation of public education through steep increases in WAEC and NECO examination fees, neglect of school infrastructure, and failure to secure learning environments.
"First, they price poor children out of classrooms. Then they fail to protect those who remain in school. This is a double assault on the future of Nigeria. One is economic exclusion; the other is violent intimidation. Together, they amount to a systematic destruction of the dreams of an entire generation," he said.
He also criticised the 2026 national budget, alleging it contained questionable expenditure including a 6.4 billion naira allocation described as being for an "Aso Rock Supporters Club" for the World Cup, while schools remained underfunded and unprotected.
"The same budget that mysteriously accommodates billions of naira for items that defy logic cannot adequately secure the classrooms where Nigeria's children are supposed to learn. That is how governments create the vacuum that criminals exploit," Atiku stated.
Call for rescue and security reform
Atiku called for the immediate and unconditional release of all abducted victims, urging the Federal Government to move beyond issuing routine statements after each tragedy and implement concrete, measurable security reforms across all schools and examination centres in the country.
"History will not remember how many press releases this government issued after each abduction. History will remember whether it protected Nigeria's children or abandoned them. No nation has ever developed by forcing its children to choose between education and survival," he said.
He concluded that the minimum any responsible government owes its citizens is a guarantee that children can pursue education without fear, saying:
"The children of Nigeria deserve books instead of bullets, classrooms instead of captivity, examinations instead of evacuation, and hope instead of horror."
Atiku drags Tinubu over 2 main issues
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar accused the Bola Tinubu administration of orchestrating a deliberate effort to twist the facts of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) scandal in order to shield implicated government officials and pin blame on the political opposition.
In a statement released on Tuesday, July 15, and signed by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku described the arrest of the self-styled PFIPC Director-General, Adeniyi Adeyemi, as a tactical manoeuvre designed not to uncover the truth but to produce statements that could be weaponised against opposition figures.
Source: Legit.ng
