President Muhammadu Buhari, while praising the effort of the Nigerian Army, has welcomed the release of kidnapped students of the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, describing their safe return as a big relief to their families, the entire country and to the international community.
Shortly after their release was announced, President Buhari expressed the nation’s appreciation for the steps taken by all involved to make their release possible.
In a statement made available by Mallam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to the President, Buhari specifically cited what he called the “spirit of partnership and the collaborative efforts of the government of Katsina, Zamfara and military leading to the release and commended the nation’s intelligence agencies, the military and police force for providing the environment for the safe release of the hostages.”
Speaking further, “The Governor (Masari) and the army worked extremely hard. As soon as I got the information I congratulated them. The Armed Forces know their job. They have been well trained and properly motivated.”
On the issue of detainees held elsewhere in the country by either terrorists or bandits, the President gave assurance that his administration is aware of its responsibility to protect the life and property of Nigerians. He urged the citizens to be fair to the administration as it deals with the problems of security, economy and corruption which the administration was elected to resolve.
“When we came, we made efforts that yielded the return of the Chibok Girls. When a similar incident of school abduction happened at Dapchi, we successfully returned all but one of the more than one hundred abductees. When this latest incident happened, we put in our efforts and today we have this result to show.”
The President pointed to the successes of the administration in dealing with security in the South-South and the North East. He said the North West now presented a problem which his administration is determined to deal with.
“We have a lot of work to do, especially now that we have reopened the borders. It is unfortunate that the bandits and terrorists continued to get weapons even under the circumstances of the border closure. We are going to dare them. We will deal with all that,” the President further assured.
He prayed for the full recovery of the students who he said had endured significant hardships in the course of their six-day ordeal.
He also gave further assurances of the determination of his administration to return to safety all fellow citizens held against their will.
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