The Academic Staff Union of Universities has given security operatives 48 hours to rescue six persons abducted on Tuesday by gunmen at the University of Abuja Staff Quarters.

Chairperson of the University of Abuja chapter of ASUU, Dr Kasim Umar, said lecturers had stopped going to classrooms because of the incident which had traumatised them.

“We want these 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 during a briefing at the mini campus of the university in Gwagwalada on Thursday.

Gunmen abducted six persons, including two professors, a deputy registrar and three family members, during an early hour raid at the university’s staff quarters on Tuesday.

Umar lamented that the internal security in the university was overwhelmed, adding that there had been ‘a lot kidnapping’.

He noted that until recently when fencing was embarked upon along the highway into the city centre, there was no perimeter fencing from behind or sides of the university’s vast land.

Umar said, “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 the state of 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 in the campuses and residential quarters of the university.”

He expressed worry over the degenerating state of security across the country.

Umar said ASUU, as a responsible union, could not sit down and fold its arms while things degenerated into unimaginable levels.

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The ASUU chair added that unless urgent measures were put in place, things may become worse.

He called for the immediate rescue and release of all kidnapped members, children and other staff.

He said, “Perimeter fencing around the staff quarters should be immediately embarked upon for effective control of movement around the university’s quarters.

“There should be an active cooperation between the military, other security agencies and the university administration.

“To make this effective, ASUU demands for 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.”

Meanwhile, the Director of Security Secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, Adamu Gwari, in an interview said the FCTA was making moves to deploy security operatives to schools in three area councils in line with the recent security threats.

He said, “There was an emergency meeting to beef up security in all locations especially in our academic institutions.”

Gwari called on members of the public to keep having faith in the security agencies.