Former vice president Atiku Abubakar on Wednesday slammed the release of 24 abducted schoolgirls in Kebbi State as no triumph, but a stark sign of Nigeria’s crumbling security.
Gunmen raided Government Girls’ Secondary School in Maga on November 17, killing a staffer and seizing 25 pupils. One escaped soon after. The rest were freed Tuesday without ransom, officials said.
President Bola Tinubu hailed the outcome via aide Bayo Onanuga: “All the 24 girls have been accounted for.” He praised security teams and ordered more troops in hotspots.
Governor Nasir Idris credited “coordinated action” by forces. Onanuga, in a Monday Arise News chat, explained: “The security people know all the bandits… You can’t just go there. They need to be very careful that… they don’t go and bomb innocent Nigerians.”
Atiku fired back in a media statement. “The return of these schoolgirls is not a trophy moment but a damning reminder that terrorists now operate freely, negotiate openly, and dictate terms,” he said.
He questioned the approach: “If… the DSS and the military could ‘track’ the kidnappers in real time and ‘made contact’ with them, then… Why were these criminals not arrested, neutralised, or dismantled on the spot?”
“Why is the government boasting about talking to terrorists instead of eliminating them?” Atiku added. “No serious nation applauds itself for negotiating with terrorists… No responsible government congratulates itself for allowing abductors to walk back into the forests to kidnap again.”
The ADC leader called it “a shameful attempt to whitewash a national tragedy and dress up government incompetence as heroism.”
