Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State on Thursday said he feels inadequate because of his inability to quickly rescue the pupils recently kidnapped from the Lagos State Model College, Igbonla-Epe.
Ambode spoke with journalists in Abuja in the wake of the recent kidnapping and a fresh threat by the kidnappers to attack the Lagos Model College, Kankon, in Badagry.
He said the fact that that was the second time such incident would happen in the school gave the government an insight that something might be amiss.
He however said he would wait until the children were rescued before making a pronouncement.
The governor said he had already brought the issue to the notice of the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, and the nation’s service chiefs.
In his words: “If there is anything that makes me feel terribly inadequate, it is my inability to quickly get those schoolchildren back.
“I want to assure everybody that we are on top of it. We cannot be putting all the efforts that we are making on the pages of newspapers. That will jeopardise our efforts to recover those children.
“I cannot compromise their security just because I want to look good in the eyes of the public. But believe me, I am working 24hours a day to make sure that they come back safely.
“I want to assure Lagosians that Lagos is safe and we are doing our best. There are just about 33,000 policemen in the state as against 22 million people and that was why we decided to do this Neighbourhood Safety Corps just to complement what the police are doing.
“More importantly, we are investing in technology equipment that we can actually use to combat this crime. I believe and I am praying also that in the next few days, these children will be back safely.”
TheNewsGuru.com reports that gunmen suspected to be militants on Thursday, May 25, invaded the school, abducting the principals (from Junior and Senior schools) and some students. The kidnappers were said to have stormed the school in the early hours when the students were at the morning assembly.