The Chairman of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) Alhaji Usman Abubakar, has said both primary and secondary schools in rural communities of the territory are not safe to resume academic activities.
Usman, who spoke exclusively to Daily Trust in Abuja on Friday, said reports over activities of bandits and kidnappers in some rural communities especially at Abaji rural communities, which share boundaries with neighbouring villages in Niger State, were quite worrisome.
He said some primary and secondary schools in some villages had been shut down over bandits’ threat.
“In fact, schools within Yaba axis and some other communities that share boundaries with neighbouring villages in Niger State are still shut because report coming from that axis over security threat as a result of activities of bandits and kidnappers is quite worrisome,” he said.
The PTA chairman said even before the resumption of academic activities, some of the rural schools across the axis had been facing security threats, saying “we expected that before resumption, the government should be able to put in place security measures in these schools”.
Usman said though the association was impressed with the directive of the FCT administration, asking schools to resume, he said the administration ought to have put in place security measures in such rural schools.
He, therefore, appealed to the FCT administration to liaise with community leaders in mobilizing local vigilantes to safeguard the affected rural schools in order to enable students and pupils to resume academic activities.
Daily Trust had reported that rural communities such as Adagba, Dogon-Ruwa, Paikon Basa, Gulida, Tekpeshe, Kutara, Mawogi, and Rafin-Daji under the Abaji area council which share boundaries with Niger State have been under regular attacks by bandits in the past few months.
