HURIWA: Kebbi School Abduction Exposes Collapse of FG’s Security Claims

***Demands Full Account of N595bn Intelligence Budget

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has blasted the Federal Government after terrorists stormed the Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, in Kebbi State, abducting scores of students in an early-morning raid.
The rights group said the attack has shattered government claims of massive investment in school security and raised urgent questions about the N595 billion budgeted for Nigeria’s intelligence community in 2024.
In a statement by National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko, HURIWA condemned the attack—which left a staff member dead and a security guard wounded—as a “grim reminder that Nigeria’s intelligence and security systems are failing where it matters most.”
The group charged the military, DSS and Police to immediately launch a coordinated rescue mission:
“These are our daughters. The terrorists must be tracked, intercepted and neutralised or brought before the law. This government must abandon rhetoric and build a genuine, functional security and intelligence structure that prevents such tragedies.”
HURIWA also took a swipe at the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, who in May boasted on national television that Nigeria had recorded no school abductions in 12 months—crediting the Tinubu administration’s policies and the Safe School Initiative.
According to HURIWA, the Maga attack proves that the minister’s confidence was misplaced, and the government’s assurances were built on propaganda rather than capacity.
Residents of Maga said the terrorists struck at about 4:00 a.m., before dawn prayers, and escaped with the girls after shooting their way through the school. They insist the attackers are still within reach and are pleading for swift intervention before the captors vanish with the students.
HURIWA recalled that Kebbi has a troubling history of school abductions—including the June 17, 2021 Birnin Yauri incident, where more than 80 students and five teachers were taken after gunmen overpowered security personnel.
The rights group questioned why Nigeria continues to suffer repeat attacks despite years of warnings from earlier tragedies in Borno, Kaduna and Yobe, stressing that effective intelligence and preventive security are the only viable solutions—not “waiting for terrorists to strike before reacting.”
HURIWA also criticised lawmakers for approving huge security budgets without enforcing accountability:
“There are widespread reports that some lawmakers compromise their oversight duties for financial benefit. If true, this silence in the face of insecurity is nothing short of complicity.”