President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ordered the security personnel in the country to treat kidnappers as terrorists.
Tinubu said this on Tuesday during a Ramadan dinner attended by members of the Federal judiciary.
On Thursday, 7 March, 137 schoolchildren were kidnapped from LEA Primary School and Government Secondary School, Kuriga, in Kaduna.
The schoolchildren were eventually rescued by the Nigerian army on Sunday, 24 March in a forest about 120 miles to the north in neighbouring Zamfara state.
According to military officials, six of the 137 students were admitted in hospital, and one staff member who was abducted along with the children died in captivity.
Speaking at the dinner, Tinubu said his administration is working hard to get rid of kidnapping in the country.
“Nobody wants crime or any danger on his or her backyard and no leader would want to mortgage the future of their children,” Tinubu said.
“We are working hard and when we say kidnappers are terrorists that is the way we will treat them, that is the fact we are facing currently unless we take very strong action against those people.
“They have become cowardly, they have been degraded, they look for soft targets, they kidnap children, create disaffection.
“We must treat equally as terrorists in order to really get rid of them and I promise you we are going to get rid of them.”
