United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for the immediate release of the school girls kidnapped on Friday in Zamfara. 

The UN chief in a tweeted Friday night:

“I am appalled by the abduction of more than 300 girls during an attack on a secondary school in Nigeria today.

“Attacks on schools are a heinous violation of human rights.

The girls must be released to their families immediately & unconditionally.”

Peoples Gazette had earlier reported the abduction of at least 300 school girls at the Government Girls’ Secondary School, Jangebe in Talata-Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State. 

The abduction came a few weeks after school over 340 boys were abducted by bandits in Kagara, Katsina- President Muhammadu Buhari’s home state.. 

Bandits had days ago also attacked a secondary school in neighbouring Niger state seizing 29 students and school administrators. 

The Gazette exclusively reported that the government paid N800 million via negotiators to the bandits but Niger State governor, Abubakar Sani-Bello blocked the move, causing a stalemate in the process.

The Buhari administration continues to receive flaks for growing insecurity across the country. 

Just as abductions and insurgency activities are rife in the North, ethnic tensions arising from farmers-herders clashes threaten the unity of the country in the South as well as among ethnic minorities in the nation’s middle belt.

The president rejigged his service chiefs penultimate week after years of clamour against their incompetence. The new service chiefs had had no time to settle down before the latest escalation of abductions among other security challenges.