All’s well that ends well. This best describes the safe rescue of the six students that were kidnapped from their school – Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, in the Epe area of Lagos State on May 25. The nation had waited with bated breath, as days turned to weeks and weeks months, with the students still in captivity, without any hope as to when exactly they would return. The abduction of the ‘Igbonla Six’ was not the first of such abduction of school pupils in the state; but theirs has led to the longest wait ever for the return of the student-captives.
It all began in the early hours of May 25, when some gunmen stormed the school during the morning assembly and abducted the students, after firing gun shots to scare the students and parents. Policemen on guard tried to intercept them and called for reinforcement which did not arrive until the students were whisked away through the waterways. Ten of them were initially captured but four were released after the abductors had profiled their parents to know what they were doing for a living. They then left with the six that they held captive until July 28.
The incident naturally led to outrage nationwide, with the House of Representatives calling on the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to ensure that the students were rescued as soon as possible, six days later. It was another trying time for the Lagos State government which also vowed to ensure that the students would be safely reunited with their parents.
Although the state government would appear to be a veteran in matters like this, having experienced students’ abductions in some of its schools several times, the Igbonla case was simply in a world of its own. No one would have imagined that the students would be separated from their homes for about the two months that they were held. The good news however is that all the students were rescued at last.
It must have been a traumatic experience for the students, given their tender ages. They therefore need to undergo thorough medical examinations to ensure that they still enjoy robust health. They had told stories of how their captors flogged them and subjected them to various inhuman conditions while their ordeals lasted. They also need counselling to help them return to normal life.
We commend everyone involved in the rescue operations – the police and the collaboration among the Lagos, Ondo and Delta state governments which facilitated their rescue.
Although the sad incident is now over, it must have presented virtually everyone involved an opportunity to learn one or two lessons. The school authorities that were forewarned by the abductors and yet did not do enough to guard against it; the security agencies that left too early when the coast was not clear for them to do, and even the state government officials who knew no sleep throughout the period the students were in captivity. Mercifully, the government has promised to return to the drawing board and come up with a better security architecture for its schools, particularly those in the riverine areas.
We implore Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State to ensure a speedy fulfillment of his promises. “The issue of security is a social contract that we have signed with the people of Lagos and we would ensure that we do not disappoint. As far as our schools are concerned, we are going back to the drawing board to ensure that all that need to be done in terms of securing our schools before the next academic session is done,” Habib Aruna, the governor’s chief press secretary quoted the governor as saying.
So help him God.
