Insecurity: We shutdown schools because we were told to - Bauchi Governor

Gov. Bala Mohammed of Bauchi state has said that the state government decided to close down all the state, federal and private primary, secondary schools and tertiary institutions as a result of the advice by the security agencies in the state.

Mohammed stated this in Bauchi on Wednesday before the commencement of the State’s Executive Council (SEC) meeting.

According to him, the security architecture in the state had received an intelligence of a plausible and imminent invasion of schools and abduction of students in the state, hence the decision to avert the attacks.

“Yes, we close our schools because we were asked to close them by the security agencies as they have more information than us, even though I'm the Chief Security Officer, I don't have the personnel.

“They have told us that there is a likelihood of abduction of our students as has been the practice all over which is why we sympathize with other states where these things happened.

“For being proactive is not to create fear but to be safe and secure is better than to go with ego.

“We have closed the schools and we will make sure that we do as much as we can to make those far away or hard to reach and vulnerable schools fenced maybe before the end of this year,” said Mohammed.

Mohammed added that all schools in the state must be fenced with security lights, adding that recruitment of vigilantes would go concurrently with the Safe School Programme as enunciated by the Office of the National Security Adviser which he promised would be implemented 100 per cent in Bauchi.

Governor Mohammed also said that the five police officers that were ambushed and killed in Darazo Local Government Area of the state was not a banditry attack as being carried by some media but a community related issue.

“We had an incident in Darazo, an incident of banditry as reported but I want to tell you, it is not banditry, it is a community issue. We are here on the ground and we know it.

“We will handle it very well and I want to assure the general public that what happened in Darazo is not banditry but a community related issue and we will handle it with the police and DSS,” he assured.