Former Nigerian Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has described the release of over 300 schoolboys abducted from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, as wonderful news.

She also urged the government to revive the Safe School Initiative to ensure better protection for students.

Okonjo-Iweala, who is the leading candidate for the job of director-general of the World Trade Organisation, made this known on Twitter last night.

“Return of Katsina boys is wonderful news!! Time to revive the #SafeSchool initiative and implement it comprehensively to protect our children,” she tweeted.

We had earlier reported that gunmen on motorcycles attacked the school over a week ago and abducted the students. The abduction occurred some hours after the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) arrived in Daura, Katsina for a week-long private visit.

Terror group, Boko Haram, had released two videos, claiming responsibility for the attack and saying the dastardly act was done in order to discourage people from obtaining western education.

Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari, however, announced on Thursday that 344 schoolboys were released by bandits in Zamfara State.

The governor, who received the students on Friday when they arrived in Katsina from Zamfara, also said the schoolboys would receive proper medical attention before they are reunited with their families.

READ ALSO: KANKARA: BUHARI CREATED THE PROBLEM, HE SHOULDN’T BE CONGRATULATED, SAYS EZEKWESILI

The Kankara students’ abduction is not the first in the history of the nation. Non-state actors had in the past abducted hundreds of secondary school girls from Chibok, in Borno State; and Dapchi in Yobe State. Some of them eventually regained freedom while a number of them were detained in the enclaves of their abductors and sexual abusers.

After the 2014 Chibok schoolgirls’ abduction, the Safe Schools Initiative was conceived as a response to children and schools affected by militants in the North-East states.

The programme was launched by the Government of Nigeria and the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, former UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, alongside the Nigerian Global Business Coalition for Education and private sector leaders in Abuja in May 2014.

The Safe School Initiative entails a combination of: transfer of secondary school students to other states; support to education in the IDP camps and pilot safe schools’ models including community mobilisation.

But over five years after the launch of this initiative, many more abductions and attacks have been carried out in several schools, especially in northern Nigeria.