NUT Kaduna holds solidarity rally, demands end to school Kidnappings
Muhammad Sani Kaduna
The Nigeria Union of Teachers, Kaduna State Wing, on Tuesday staged a nationwide solidarity rally, calling on government to treat attacks on schools and abductions of students and teachers as a national emergency.
Addressing a press conference with “heavy hearts”, the union said the protest was driven by pain over repeated school attacks across the country, according to statement signed by Comr. Sunday Garba, State Treasurer for State Chairman; Adamu Ayuba Kaltungo, State Secretary, respectively and made available to newsmen in kaduna Tuesday.
“We are gathered here not by choice but by pain. Our children who are supposed to be the future of Nigeria are in captivity. Teachers who are saddled with the responsibility of shaping the future of this country have been silenced,” the union stated.
“While the rally was triggered by recent abductions in Oriire LGA, Oyo State”, the NUT said it was also responding to a pattern of school kidnappings that remain unabated.
The union listed several of the incidents, including – April 2014, Chibok girls in Borno where 276 female students kidnapped with over 90 still missing; Feb 2018, Dapchi, Yobe state where 110 schoolgirls taken with 5 killed; and Dec 2020, Kankara, Katsina state where over 300 boys abducted later released.
Others are Feb 2021 Kagara in Niger state where 27 students abducted with 1 student killed; Feb 2021 in Jangebe, Zamfara state where 317 girls abducted later released; Mar-Apr 2021 in Kaduna where 39 students taken from Afaka and 20 plus from Greenfield University with 5 killed respectively.
Also listed includes July 2021, in Chikun LGA of Kaduna state where over 100 students from Bethel Baptist taken were released in batches; Mar 2024, Kuriga in Kaduna state where 287 students seized with 137 freed in March; the Nov 2025, Maga in Kebbi state where 25 girls abducted with vice principal was killed.
Nut also recounted the Nov 2025, in Papiri, Niger State where over 300 students and teachers abducted from St. Mary’s Catholic School, as well as May 2026 where 26 children taken from an orphanage/school in Kogi; and the further abductions in 3 schools in Oriire, Oyo respectively.
According to the Nut “When a child is abducted, every school child loses a piece of their freedom. When one teacher falls, every teacher stands afraid. When schools become targets, our whole future bleeds,” the union said. “Today, we as parents, teachers and citizens whose hearts are broken, choose solidarity over fear.”
The Union in its 5 points, therefore demands for immediate release of all students and teachers in captivity, and treated it as a national emergency, adding that “Every hour a child spends in captivity is an hour too long, urging for deployment of every resource, intelligence, negotiation and force if need be.”
The Union also demanded that government should make schools safe, provide security, fencing, and patrols in all schools, especially in rural and vulnerable areas.
It stated “Prosecute perpetrators, enforce stiffer penalties for kidnapping educators to serve as deterrence and deliver justice for fallen teachers”.
“Support families and survivors, provide counselling, financial and medical care for families of the missing, traumatized escapees, and grieving colleagues, engage communities, involve parents, traditional leaders, trade unions, and civil society in security efforts”, it also demanded.
NUT warned that it had earlier cautioned government through a paper titled “Stop the attack on schools, teachers and learners now, not until we perish” and urged government not to allow the situation to degenerate to a point where the union would be forced to down tools.
“An injury to one is an injury to all. We will not grow tired of asking, we will not grow quiet with grief. Until the last child and teacher is released and the last school is safe, our demands stand. Solidarity forever,” the union declared.
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