A security expert, Dr. Ona Ekhomu, has warned that the Boko Haram
insurgents may abduct more schoolgirls from the North East, unless
proactive robust school security measures were put in place to forestall
such occurrence.
He said going by the worldwide publicity and notoriety that the
insurgents got from kidnapping more than 200 schoolgirls in Chibok,
Borno State, the controversial leader of the group, Abubakar Shekau was
likely to launch such attack again with the aim of calling attention to
his group despite its apparent defeat by the Nigerian military.
In a statement issued in Lagos ahead of the first anniversary of the
mass abduction of the girls, Ekhomu, who is President of the Association
of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria (AISSON), called
for the creation of standards of security to harden educational
institutions against fresh terrorist attacks. He challenged school
authorities and state governments in the North to urgently design
security master plans for schools in order to safeguard students and
teachers from more terrorist attacks.
Dr. Ekhomu, who described the plight of the Chibok girls as tragic
said: “I’m sure that most of the girls have been given away to terrorist
commanders or sold off as wives or sex slaves by Shekau.”
He charged all relevant authorities to be proactive in the
implementation of security measures aimed at protecting students from
mass abductions or mass murder.
Nevertheless, Ekhomu praised the successful military operation in the
North East, which resulted in reclaiming territories previously
captured by the insurgents. He, however, warned that the deadly group
had not been defeated, but had merely gone underground from where they
can mount stealth attacks.
He, therefore, advised the incoming administration to be led by
General Muhammadu Buhari, to focus on the security of the vulnerable
population in schools in the northern part of the country, stressing
that the security of schools from Boko Haram attacks should form an
important part of the new government’s security architecture.
Ekhomu who is said to be the first chartered security professional in
Nigeria condemned the safe school initiative as not being focused on
protecting school populations. He said the initiative was ‘British
culture-bound’ focusing on infrastructure development, emergency relief
and rehabilitation of the Chibok girls who may never be found.
“Rather than on preventive, detective or reactive physical security
measures that could address the existential threat to schools in
northern Nigeria,” he argued.
He advised that security experts be involved in conducting
vulnerability assessments and threat assessment of schools in order to
develop workable School security master plans.
“The plans should include concentric layers of protective measures,
smoke bombs to conceal students in their hostels from marauders,
electrified hardware to lock-down the school in the event of an invasion
by malevolent individuals. There should be security awareness training
for Schools including teachers and students,” the expert counseled.
While recommending the purchase of a book entitled ‘Effective
Personal and Corporate Security’ for Schools to help them develop their
security awareness programs, he also urged the government to establish a
911 emergency response system for taking calls from persons in
distress.
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