The Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, on Thursday said that parents are now afraid to send their children to school due to insecurity plaguing the country.

Tunji-Ojo made this known in his goodwill message delivered at the launch of “Exercise Safe Schools” held in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.

He said, “Parents are afraid of sending their children to school for fear of attacks.”

The minister who spoke through the Commandant General of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Ahmed Abubakar Audi, contended that the menace of attacks on schools in the country since 2014 when hundreds of girls were abducted from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State was quite a worrisome situation.

Audi, however, in his own speech at the occasion of passing out of 364 participants who were trained to provide security for schools in Benue and other states of the country including all those in North Central hailed the formation of the safer schools unit in the NSCDC.

He disclosed that so far, the initiative had prevented over 30 attacks in schools across the country since it birthed in parts of the federation.

Meanwhile, Governor Hyacinth Alia, in his keynote address at the occasion pledged the support of his administration to prioritise schools security as he emphasised the vital role of education in development. (Daily Trust)