The security expert, Dr. Ona Ekhomu, warned
that the Boko Haram terrorist organization may abduct more school girls from
the northeast of the country unless robust school security measures were put in
place to forestall such occurrence.
Ekhomu said: “Given the world-wide
publicity and notoriety that BH got from seizing the Chibok school girls,
Shekau is likely to run such a play again in order to call attention to his
group -- despite its apparent defeat by the Nigerian military.”
In the first anniversary of the mass
abduction of over 200 school girls from the Government Girls’ Secondary School,
Chibok, Borno State, 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 terrorist
attacks.
He called on school authorities and
state governments in the north to urgently design security master plans for schools
in order to safeguard students and teachers from terrorist attacks.
Dr. Ekhomu described the plight of the
Chibok girls as tragic.
He said: “I’m sure that most of the
girls have been given away to terrorist commanders or sold off as wives or as
sex slaves by Shekau.”
He said that the most important lesson
of the Chibok mass abduction was for the authorities to be proactive in the
implementation of security measures aimed at protecting students from mass
abductions or mass murder.
Ekhomu praised the successful military
campaign in the northeast which has resulted in reclaiming territories
previously held by the insurgents.
He however warned that Boko Haram had
not been defeated. “They have merely gone underground from where they can mount
stealth attacks, such recent attacks in Njaba, Maiduguri and Kwajafa which have
resulted in mass fatalities,” he added.
The security expert recalled that many
Schools had been successfully attacked by Boko Haram including Bayero
University Kano, the University of Maiduguri, Federal Polytechnic Mubi, School
of Hygiene Technology in Kano, Government Girls Secondary School Mamudo - Yobe
State, Government Secondary School Buni Yadi - Yobe State. He said Boko Haram
had previously taken several female hostages from various schools in Yobe and Borno
states.
Ekhomu who is the first chartered
security professional in Nigeria denounced 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.
The plan should include security
awareness training for Schools including teachers and students. He recommended
the purchase of a book entitled Effective Personal and Corporate Security for
Schools to help them develop their security awareness programs.
He urged the authorities to establish a
911 emergency response system for taking calls from persons in distress. He also asked for professionally manned-emergency
calls centers in order to avoid exposing callers to grave risk.
Ekhomu advised the incoming Buhari
administration to focus on the security of the vulnerable population in Schools
in the northern part of the country. He
advised that the security of schools from Boko Haram attacks should form an
important part of the new government’s security architecture.
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