Nigerian Schoolboys Kidnapped Over 40 Days Ago Remain Missing And Governor Ambode Of Lagos Is Doing Nothing - Activists

Nigerian activists on Thursday called on the Lagos state government to act now and rescue six schoolboys kidnapped more than 40 days ago from their school.

Six students of the Lagos Model College, Igbonla in Epe area of the state, were kidnapped from their school premises on May 25 and they remain missing till date

THESE BOYS HAVE NAMES The kidnapped boys are Yusuf Farouk, Ramon Isiaka, Pelumi Philips, Peter Jonas, Adebanjo George and Judah Agbaosi.

ANGER Anger spread almost immediately after their kidnap, especially because a similar incident had occurred last year and was allowed by the authorities to repeat itself. But, also because the kidnappers had sent a letter to the school authorities notifying them of an impending attack. No steps were taken to avert it.

With days turning into weeks, and weeks turning into months, hope began to dim, and on Thursday, a non a Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO, the Centre for Children’s Health Education, Orientation and Protection (CEE-HOPE), issued a statement, urging the Lagos state government to act now and rescue the boys without “further delay”.

“We are pained that more than 40 whole days after their kidnap, to the continued anguish of their parents and relatives and to the outrage of the world, the Lagos State Government has not succeeded in bringing the boys home,” said CEE-HOPE’s Executive Director, Betty Abah.

RANSOM The kidnappers demanded N100 million before they could release the boys. The Lagos state government rejected the offer and declared that it was not ready to negotiate with anyone, let alone pay any ransom.

The impoverished parents of the boys, mostly fishermen, traders and pensioners, raised N2 million and then N6 million to get their children released.

However, the kidnappers have insisted that it should be N100 million or nothing.

BACKGROUND About two weeks after the kidnap took place, parents and relatives of the boys stormed the office of the Lagos state governor in Alausa in Ikeja, to demand concrete action. They said there was no communication between them and the government as well as the police.

Although some persons with alleged links to the kidnap were said to have been arrested shortly after the incident, the boys are yet to be back.

“This blanket of silence has, sadly, remained for the most part on this and other related issues of public interest,” CEE-HOPE said in its statement on Thursday.

“We are aggrieved because this is an abdication of the fundamental principle of our constitutional democracy which vests the ‘security and welfare of the people’ in the hands of the government.

“The slight and outright detachment with which issues concerning waterfront communities, street traders and other categories of the urban poor in Lagos are treated are the same attitude with which the Igbonla school boys’ case is being treated, and it is scandalous,’ added the statement.

“Would it be too much if the state government and police come out with occasional updates on the matter, to re-assure the boys’ traumatised relatives and the anxious public at large?” the NGO asked.

The statement also called on the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo who is a former Attorney-General of Lagos State, to wade into the matter so as to dispel the general notion that the Nigerian government does not take issues of child’s rights, welfare and protection as priorities especially when those concern children of the haves-not.

It warned that the mistakes committed by the last administration on the Chibok schoolgirls abduction saga must not be repeated in that of the Igbonla schoolboys.