In a decisive response to the abduction of 24 schoolgirls in Kebbi State, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed the Minister of State for Defence, Alhaji Bello Matawalle, to immediately relocate to the state and coordinate on-ground security operations aimed at rescuing the missing students.
The President’s directive underscores the urgency of the situation and the weight of national anxiety following Monday’s early-morning raid at the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, where armed men stormed the school around 4 a.m. and took 24 students captive.
Sources within the Presidency told SageBits Online Magazine that the President expects the minister to remain in Kebbi “for as long as it takes” to monitor and strengthen rescue efforts. Matawalle, who once governed neighbouring Zamfara State—a hotbed of banditry for years—is no stranger to the complexities of mass abductions. His tenure between 2019 and 2023 forced him into direct confrontation with bandit networks, including the infamous 2021 Jangebe schoolgirls’ kidnapping, where 279 students aged between 10 and 17 were abducted and later freed.
The Presidency hopes Matawalle’s familiarity with the terrain and his experience negotiating volatile security situations will accelerate efforts to locate the girls and bring them home safely.
Meanwhile, President Tinubu has postponed his scheduled diplomatic visits to Johannesburg, South Africa, and Luanda, Angola, choosing instead to remain in Abuja as he awaits continuous briefings on both the Kebbi abduction and another troubling incident: the attack on worshippers at the Christ Apostolic Church in Eruku, Kwara State.
The coming days will test the strength of Nigeria’s security architecture, the federal government’s resolve, and the nation’s patience. As the country holds its breath, families in Kebbi wait for the return of their daughters—and hope that this latest chapter in Nigeria’s long struggle with school abductions ends differently.
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