Daily Independent
The persistent kidnapping of students in parts of the North and the unabated wave of insecurity across the country have sent shivers down the spine of parents whose children are in public boarding schools in the nation’s capital.
Although no such unfortunate incident has been recorded in the territory, parents said the poor infrastructure and porous security around some boarding schools in many of the Abuja satellite towns were alarming and called for serious concern.
One of such parents whose kids are in Government Secondary School (GSS), Karshi, who does not want her name in print, said they were worried that a boarding school built in an isolated location and surrounded by bushy mountains had no perimeter fence for maximum security.
“GSS Karshi has hundreds of students, male and female, as boarders but lacks a complete perimeter fence.
“It was learnt that the contract for the perimeter fence was awarded since 2010, but up till now only the front part of the school was completed with a gate as a camouflage while a vast part of the back side of the premises remains open and susceptible to attacks,” he stressed.
Also, Jeffrey Akachukwu, one of the parents, lamented that the worst aspect of the worrisome situation was the alleged occupation of part of the school land by Fulani herdsmen.
Akachukwu, who was furious that both herdsmen and farmers were allowed by the school authority to use the school exit gate as a thoroughfare, also expressed fears that the porosity of the environment portends dangers.
“No excuse is reasonable enough to leave a boarding school without a well secured and watched perimeter fence.
“The excuse that the school’s perimeter fence project was stalled because someone encroached on the school’s land and is also claiming ownership is not tenable as overriding public interest clause in Nigeria’s extant laws has taken care of that.”
He added: “Why are herdsmen allowed to be occupying parts of the school’s land?
“Is the management of the school and FCT Administration not seeing the mountainous forest that surrounds the school?
“Are they waiting until an evil day comes before appropriate actions are taken?”
Reacting to the development, a top management staff of the FCT Education Secretariat, who pleaded anonymity, said that watertight arrangements had been worked out to beef up security around the boarding schools.
The source refused to disclose what the security arrangements entails, claiming that they were security issues that ought not to be divulged.
It was also confirmed by the source that GSS Karshi had no complete fence because the
contractor encountered an obstacle on the way when a private individual started claiming part of the school’s property.
“I cannot tell you what we are doing to secure our schools; it is a security issue and we can’t make it public.
“As for GSS Karshi, we are making an effort to complete the fence. The contractor had to stop work when someone started claiming ownership of part of the school property.
“We have made our reports but due to the bureaucracy in government nothing has been done,” the source stated.
