Nigerian Army Takeover Security in Aba over Kidnapped School Children

Combat ready soldiers of the Nigerian Army.

Combat ready soldiers of the Nigerian Army have taken over security operations in Aba, Abia state, in a federal government response to the efforts to rescue the 15 school children kidnapped by gunmen in the commercial city last Monday.
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Aba has been besieged by daredevil kidnappers and armed robbers in the southeastern region of Nigeria.
Concerned citizens have been calling on President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria to declare a state of emergency in Abia after the kidnap of 15 pupils of the Abayi International School, Aba, on Monday September 27, 2010. The kidnappers hijacked the pupils’ school bus and demanded N20 million ransoms for the release of the 15 pupils. The police and other security operatives have not been able to locate their whereabouts. Then letters of threats from kidnappers forced banks, shops and schools in Aba to close since Tuesday.

"President Jonathan has ordered the inspector general of police and heads of other security agencies to take all necessary steps to rescue the abducted children and return them safely to their parents," his spokesman Ima Niboro told the BBC News yesterday.


Children in Aba. But the city is no longer safe for them.

The incessant kidnappings of helpless people have made residents to live in fear and made many of them to relocate to where there is better security of lives and properties.

“Nobody is safe in Aba. Kidnappers can abduct anyone on the street and demand ransoms as low as N5, 000 to release them,” said a security officer in Aba.

The Abia state government has failed to address the appalling state of insecurity that has harmed commercial activities and frightened away native and foreign investors.

The rampant cases of kidnapping, robberies and assassinations in Nigeria may threaten the 2011 elections as observed by many diplomats and human rights activists.