The Niger State Government has said it will relocate all the boarding schools in the state to Minna, the state capital.
This action is aimed at forestalling any attempt by bandits to invade the schools and abduct students.
The state government made this disclosure on Thursday during the post-executive council meeting media briefing, in which it said it would reclaim all school lands illegally acquired by individuals or organisations within the state capital.
The state’s Commissioner for Land, Maurice Magaji, who addressed newsmen alongside three other commissioners, noted that the relocation of the schools is a temporary measure to avoid a repeat of the Government Science College Kagara experience, in which over 128 students, including their teachers, were abducted by bandits from their hostels.
“The decision should not be misconstrued as the government surrendering the fight against the bandits in the state. The government is intensifying efforts to ensure that the war against the criminal elements is won,” he said.
Although the commissioner did not give a timeline for the relocation of these schools, he said the government has put plans in motion towards achieving this programme with an executive order by the state Governor Mohammed Bago for the revocation of all lands allocated to individuals within government schools in the state.
Magaji noted that the state government will take back all school lands allocated to individuals, whether they have a certificate of occupancy or not, adding that the government needs such lands to be able to expand existing structures to accommodate those schools that will be relocated.
The state government also disclosed its decision to clamp down on all quack private tertiary institutions to make sure that only those that have a genuine certificate and have undergone proper accreditation are allowed to operate in the state.
The State Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Abdullahi Mammagi, revealed that of the 56 private tertiary institutions in the state, only 34 passed accreditation text, while 22 are said to be operating without proper accreditation.
He said the majority of these quack private tertiary institutions are schools of health technologies and nursing, saying this explains why there is a need for the government to insist on the required standard before operating.
Niger State was hit by a bandit attack on schools when over a hundred students and their teachers were abducted from the Government Science College, Kagara. Pupils of an Islamic primary school in Tegina, Kagara local government area of the state, were also abducted within the same period.
This wave of abduction of students led to the shutting down of all boarding schools by the immediate past administration in the state.