A Non-Government Organisation, the Child Protection Network (CPN), Oyo state Chapter has staged a peaceful protest to decry the incessant and wanton kidnapping of children across Nigeria.

 

The protesters gathered today March 22, 2024 at the Total garden area of Ibadan the Oyo state capital to register their displeasure over the worrisome menace bedeviling the country particularly that of the recent kidnap of school children in Kaduna state.

 

While speaking with newsmen at the ground of the protest which was done in collaboration with some other stakeholders, the CPN state Coordinator, Mrs Oluwatoyin Ogedengbe explained that the safety and security of children which has in recent times been continually tampered with birthed the protest.

 

Following this, Mrs Ogedengbe noted that the organisation decided to speak up against the aberration, calling on major stakeholders including the Government, Public Spirited individuals, Religious/Community Leaders, and Families to rise up to the occasion of saying no to the menace of kidnapping.

 

 

She described the recent kidnapping of at least 287 school children by armed gunmen in LEA Primary and Secondary School in the Kuriga village of Kaduna’s Chikun district as highly worrisome, saying such occurrences has to be stopped at all cost.

 

 

The Oyo state CPN coordinator, who further opined that contrary to the notion that such occurrences only take place in the north, said the recent record of such in Ekiti state is a clear pointer that the life of all child matters, calling on the government at all levels to put mechanisms and structures in place to ensure the security of not just children, but for all and sundry.

 

She also particularly called on the government to do more in increasing the budget and allocations of funds geared towards providing efficient and effective equipments for combating terrorism and kidnapping, using the case of Chibok school girls abductors, who are yet to be apprehended as a yardstick that the government still has so much to do in making sure the lives of all Nigerians is secured.

 

Mrs Oluwatoyin equally charged all Nigerians to join the fight against the kidnapping of children by staying vigilant and reporting whoever is involved and aiding or abating the practice of kidnapping children.

 

Also speaking at the event, a representative of National Human Right Commission, Mr Babatunde Onilari lamented that the pressure of existing or impending kidnapping is becoming unbearable for families and beckoned on the Northern Leaders Forum, Northern Governors Forum and the Northern Senators Forum to speak out against it.

 

In her own submissions, the Executive Director of Youth Care Development and Empowerment Initiative, Dr Adefunke Ekine believed that the economic benefit inclined with the nefarious practise is what is still keeping it going, advising the government to nip kidnapping in the bud.

 

For Alhaji Iskil Yusuf, who is the Executive Director of Child Development and Concern Foundation, his concerns were that the continued re-occurrence of child kidnapping ten years after that of the Chibok school girls was alarming and a clarion call for the government to wake from it’s slumber and ensure necessary actions are taken to bring kidnapping to a close in Nigeria.