The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has given security operatives 48 hours to rescue six persons abducted on Tuesday by gunmen at the University of Abuja Staff Quarters.
Chairman of Uniabuja chapter of ASUU Dr Kasim Umar said lecturers have stopped going to classrooms because of the incident which has traumatised them.
“We want our members back within 48 hours. We can no longer go to class because we are traumatised. The security agencies have to wake up and rescue our members,” he said yesterday at a briefing on the university’s Gwagwalada mini-campus.
Gunmen abducted six persons, including two professors, a deputy registrar and three family members during the early Tuesday raid.
Umar lamented that the internal security in the university is overwhelmed, saying there has been “a lot kidnapping.”
“The students hostels are highly unsecured and the entire campus is vulnerable to all manner of attacks. For this reason, trespassers and unauthorised individuals have occupied some parts of the university land, thereby increasing insecurity on the campus.
“The lives of our members, students and other staff of the university are seriously endangered by the parlous state of security on the campuses and residential quarters of the university,” he said.
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He called for “the immediate rescue and release of all our kidnapped members, children and other staff, who are currently being held by the criminals. Government should act swiftly to ensure this is done.
“ASUU demands the establishment of a rapid response unit, in the form of a joint task force or police mobile unit or military special force, which could be called upon, in case of any emergency,” he said.
The association also called the “immediate ejection of all illegal occupants and trespassers from the university land”.
Also speaking yesterday, Ebosetale Aigbefoh,Vice Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Gwagwalada Branch, Abuja, called for increased security surveillance in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to address security challenges.
Aigbefoh was speaking in Gwagwalada in the aftermath of the Tuesday abduction of six persons from UniAbuja staff quarters.
“There should be more deployment of police patrol teams at strategic locations, including Keffi, Lokoja-Abuja Road to Gwagwalada,Tungan Maje, Zuba and beyond to ensure efficient and effective surveillance of the FCT,” he said.