𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐬 ‘𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝𝐬’ 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐬 — 𝐆𝐚𝐧𝐚

Former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana, has warned that the recent surge in school kidnappings may be a deliberate move by bandits to use abducted children as “human shields” amid fears of foreign military action.

Gana issued the warning on Saturday in Abuja at a reception celebrating the appointment of the Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, as Chairman of the World Customs Organisation, alongside a fundraising dinner for the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations.

He suggested that the spike in abductions could be linked to concerns among armed groups following threats from United States President Donald Trump. According to him, bandits may believe they could soon be targeted by international forces.
“It should become extremely worrying to see younger ones being abducted here and there,” Gana said. “Somebody phoned me to say that it appears the bandits are taking the threat from the U.S. president seriously and may now be mobilising human shields to protect themselves.”

He added that the pattern of attacks indicated that the criminals were retreating deeper into forest hideouts in anticipation of aerial strikes. “They fear that they are going to be targeted from the air and therefore felt the need to grab a few people to be human shields,” he noted.

Gana urged the Federal Government to intensify international collaboration and leverage advanced technology to neutralise the threat. “Technology has reached a point where you can be targeted from the air. And I think these people need to be targeted now from the air,” he said.