Abduction of students: Okonjo-Iweala expresses sadness, demands release
Director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has called on the federal government to ensure the release of the students abducted by bandits in Kaduna and Sokoto states.
Okonjo-Iweala was speaking at the launch of the WTO-ITC 2024 technical assistance programme for Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja.
The director general while expressing sadness over the mass abduction of students and teachers in the country pointed out that education is very crucial to economic development.
She said: “I am sad because I am here at a time when once more hundreds of our school children and teachers have been abducted,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
“As a mother, grandmother, educator and someone for whom education is paramount to creating economic opportunities, I am sad.
“And with the representative of my brother, the national security adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, I hope we can be able to recover them soon in Kaduna and Sokoto.”
Recently, over 200 students were abducted after bandits invaded the Government Secondary School Kuriga in Chikun LGA of Kaduna.
Another 15 Tsangaya students reportedly went missing after bandits invaded the school at Gidan Bakuso in Gada LGA of Sokoto.
More than 200 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Ngala area of Borno were recently abducted by terrorists while fetching firewood in the area.
