Tinubu Orders Deputy Defence Minister Matawalle to Move to Kebbi After Schoolgirls’ Abduction

President Bola Tinubu has directed the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, to immediately relocate to Kebbi State following the abduction of dozens of schoolgirls in the early hours of Monday.

The directive was issued on Thursday in a statement by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.

According to the presidency, Mr Matawalle is to remain in the state to coordinate and monitor security operations aimed at securing the release of the students abducted from Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, at about 4 a.m.

The minister, a former governor of Zamfara State, is expected to arrive in Birnin Kebbi on Friday. His experience dealing with banditry and mass abductions during his tenure from 2019 to 2023 is believed to be valuable to the ongoing rescue efforts.

Zamfara, where Mr Matawalle once served as governor, witnessed one of the most high-profile school kidnappings on February 26, 2021, when bandits seized 279 female students from Government Girls Science Secondary School, Jangebe. All the girls were freed on March 2 of the same year.

President Tinubu has also postponed his planned trips to Johannesburg, South Africa, and Luanda, Angola, as he awaits additional security briefings on both the Kebbi school abductions and the attack on Christ Apostolic Church in Eruku, Kwara, where gunmen killed two worshippers.