Sheikh Gumi, is enlisted to engage bandits in preventing student abduction- NANS

Sunday Asefon, the President of the National Association of Nigerian Students, has expressed worry over the continual closure of schools in the northern portion of the country, particularly in Kaduna State, due to insecurity, particularly bandit kidnapping.

“Anyone with the propensity to kidnap and kill students in big numbers should be declared as terrorists to any nation,” Asefon said again, urging the Nigerian government to declare individuals who abduct students as terrorists.

He said this during a conversation with journalists in Ado Ekiti. According to Punch, he said that the students’ body had met with controversial Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmed Gumi to discuss the worrying scenario of student kidnapping and murder, and urged the Islamic scholar to advise robbers to stay away from schools.

Asefon also disclosed that NANS has resolved its factional problem, with the Abdumajid Oyeniyi splinter group reuniting with the main body and pledging allegiance to the Asefon-led national body in the interests of Nigeria’s over 41 million students.

“Governments should beef up security at schools,” Asefon added. We believe that pupils should be able to attend school knowing that they will be safe.

“We (NANS) have urged the federal government to label the bandits kidnapping students in the Northwest and North Central as terrorists, but this has not happened.

“We’ve met with a variety of stakeholders. We’ve traveled to Kaduna and a number of other states in the Northwest and North Central to urge them to provide security. Despite their best efforts, the security forces have failed us. They must take greater initiative. We want our children and teenagers to have access to education. The majority of the schools are currently under lock and key.

“We met with Sheikh Ahmed Gumi to help us appeal to them (bandits) to stay away from schools. Most of the schools are populated by the children of the poor. They should just leave our students alone and let them pursue their future,” Asefon said.

Meanwhile, Oyeniyi said he decided to embrace the Asefon-led executive in the interest of Nigerian students.

He said, “We believe that it is in the oneness that we can get better. It is our task to promote the unity and welfare of the Nigerian students”.