Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has criticised the federal government under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for celebrating the release of abducted schoolgirls, arguing that their freedom should not be portrayed as an achievement but as evidence of Nigeria’s deteriorating security landscape.

 

Atiku made the remarks in a statement issued by his spokesman, Paul Ibe, on Wednesday, just hours after the presidency announced the release of schoolgirls kidnapped from Government Girls’ Secondary School, Maga, in Kebbi State last Monday.

 

Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga had earlier disclosed that the Kebbi schoolgirls, alongside another group of students abducted in Niger State and 38 worshippers kidnapped in Kwara State, were freed without the payment of ransom.

 

But Atiku’s camp dismissed the government’s position, insisting that the administration was attempting to score political points while insecurity worsens across the country.

 

“Under Tinubu, terrorists/bandits have become an alternative government — negotiating, collecting ransom, and walking away untouched — while the presidency celebrates their ‘compliance’,” Ibe said in the statement.

 

He argued that no serious nation “applauds itself for negotiating with terrorists it claims to have under surveillance”, adding that a responsible government would not congratulate itself after allowing abductors to “walk back into the forests to kidnap again”.

 

“If the security agencies truly had eyes on the kidnappers, then letting them escape is a national disgrace that smacks of complicity,” he added.

 

The statement also described Onanuga’s comment as “a shameful attempt to whitewash a national tragedy and dress up government incompetence as heroism”.

 

According to Atiku, the release of abducted Nigerians “is not a trophy moment”, but a stark reminder that terrorists now “operate freely, negotiate openly, and dictate terms while this administration issues press statements to save face”.

 

He questioned the presidency’s claim that the Department of State Services (DSS) and the military had tracked the kidnappers in real time. “If they made contact with them, why were these criminals not arrested, neutralised, or dismantled on the spot?” he asked.

 

“Why is the government boasting about talking to terrorists instead of eliminating them? Why is kidnapping now reduced to a routine phone call between criminals and state officials?” he added.

 

The abduction in Kebbi occurred on November 17, when armed men invaded the Government Girls’ Secondary School in Maga, killing a staff member and seizing 25 students from their dormitory. One student escaped shortly after, while the remaining 24 were freed on Tuesday.

 

Following their release, President Tinubu, through a statement by Onanuga, expressed relief that all the girls had been accounted for and urged security agencies to intensify efforts to rescue other Nigerians still in captivity across the country.