The recent invasion of Government Science Secondary School, an all-boys secondary school in Katsina State, the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari, by bandits underpins the call for a reset of the country’s security architecture.
There has been clamouring for the president to sack the service chiefs as the country appears to be on the ropes in the fight against insurgency under their watch.
While no group has claimed responsibility for the attack which took place on Friday an hour before midnight, the number of missing secondary school students is feared to be in hundreds. So far only a few hundreds out of the school’s 800 students have been accounted for.
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Parents who went to the school to pick their children were advised to inform the school authorities.
Witnesses stated that the attackers arrived in motorbikes and started shooting into the air, causing people to run for safety. Security operatives stationed at the school managed to put up a gunfight to resist some of the attackers until police reinforcement arrived, this gave some of the school children time to escape to uncertain safety.
A police officer was rushed to the hospital after he was shot and wounded in the gunfight.
President Muhammadu Buhari in a statement condemned the attack and offered words of comfort to families whose children went missing on Friday night.
The state governor of Katsina State, Aminu Bello Masari has ordered immediate closure of all boarding schools in the state. On Sunday, the governor stated that the number of missing students is over 300, a figure which tallies with the military’s estimate.
The military on Saturday stated that it has identified the hideout of the gunmen in forest and exchange gunfire with the hostiles, there is no official communication as to the outcome.
It is unclear if this development will make the president have a rethink about retaining his service chiefs but it certainly forms a basis for a renewed call for their dismissal.
