Niger State Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello, after a security meeting in Minna, the state capital, ordered the immediate closure of boarding schools in four local government areas of the state, which had witnessed increased kidnappings.
The local government areas affected are Rafi , Mariga, Munya, and Shiroro .
Bello said the action was necessary to save the lives of the students as the areas had already been taken over by bandits.
The governor appealed to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari ( retd. ), to deploy the necessary mechanism in flushing out the bandits.
He ruled out payment of ransom to free the abducted students and workers, saying the state government adopted the policy to discourage the kidnappers from using the proceeds of their crime to purchase more weapons.
Also on Wednesday, the governor met with a Kaduna-based cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, at the Government House, Minna.
After the meeting, Gumi told journalists that he would visit Kagara, where 27 students were kidnapped.
“The governor and I spoke on several ways to deal with insecurity in a holistic manner and find solutions to the insecurity problem in the state,” the cleric stated.