Zulum says Tinubu assured action to rescue abducted Borno children

Borno Governor Babagana Zulum says President Bola Tinubu has assured him that security agencies will take steps to rescue children abducted from Mussa and other communities in Askira-Uba Local Government Area.

Zulum spoke to State House correspondents on Friday after meeting the President at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. He said he raised the abductions and the wider security situation in Borno.

According to the governor, the assurance involved the Nigerian Army, the Department of State Services and the Office of the National Security Adviser.

Punch and Daily Post reported that between 42 and 44 children were abducted from a primary and junior secondary school and nearby homes in Mussa on May 15. The reports said they had remained in captivity for nearly five months.

Senator Mohammed Ndume previously called for intensified rescue efforts for victims from Mussa and other Southern Borno communities. NaijaTrend reported that appeal here.

Zulum said security in the state had improved over the past six months to a year and that more than two million people had been resettled in their ancestral communities over seven years.

He identified Kareto, between Damasak and Gubio, as an area requiring additional security measures. Punch reported his account that the Chief of Army Staff had approved a community and a military formation there.

The governor also said Borno was working to reopen the Maiduguri-Damboa-Biu road and that about 1,000 forest guards had been trained for deployment. He put the planned reopening at November or December at the latest.

Sources: Daily Post, Punch