Gunmen Raid Kogi School, Abduct Principal, NECO Official, Students

Kogi State – Gunmen attacked Government Secondary School, Olowa, in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State on Tuesday, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council ad hoc staff member during an ongoing NECO examination.

The attack occurred at about 5:25pm while students were writing their examination, according to police, who confirmed that one student has since been rescued while a manhunt continues for the remaining victims and their abductors.

Kogi State Governor Ahmed Ododo has mobilised security agents to rescue the abductees, while the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria has renewed calls for the Safe Schools Initiative to be made fully functional nationwide.

The incident adds to a troubling pattern of school linked abductions that have spread from Nigeria’s North East to the North West and now the South West, despite a N144.8 billion federal financing plan unveiled in 2023 to secure schools nationwide.

Police say a combined team of security agencies, including the military and the Vigilante Group of Nigeria, has commenced bush combing operations in the area in an effort to locate and rescue the remaining captives.

The Senate’s Ad hoc Committee on the Safe Schools Initiative, chaired by Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, has separately continued its probe into how far the programme has achieved its intended results amid renewed scrutiny following the Kogi attack.