The federal government has expressed concern over the recent abduction of 25 students of the Federal University Gusau, Zamfara.

The Minister of Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, passed the message during a two-day official working visit to commiserate with the state government and the university community.

The minister’s visit was also to allocate 40 houses to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

She promised collaborative efforts with the state government to rescue the students and others still in captivity.

Ms Edu said President Bola Tinubu had already given marching orders to security agencies to ensure the rescue of the remaining people under captivity.

She said her visit to Zamfara was long overdue, considering the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis that made the state a flash point of the ministry.

In addition to sympathy visit, the ministry was in the state to revalidate social data of the vulnerable communities and to hand over 40 houses to IDPs

While addressing the university community, the minister gave the president’s assurance that those students would be back and continue with their studies.

Ms Edu maintained that security and education were the top priorities of President Bola Tinubu’s administration and that he introduced student loans and other scholarships to encourage more enrollment into university and other tertiary institutions.

The minister equally handed over the 40 units of houses to Governor Dauda Lawal for onward distribution to IDPs in the state as part of FG’s efforts to address humanitarian issues.

The vice-chancellor of the FUGUS, Muazu Abubakar, said the university management was doing all within its ability to encourage students not to be distracted by the ugly incident.

(NAN)