States in the north have been especially hit with a series of school abductions that have further worsened the education issues in the region.

Some pupils and teachers of LEA Primary School in Rema, Birnin Gwari local government area of Kaduna State were kidnapped early on Monday, March 15, 2021.

It was the third school attack in Kaduna in the space of five days following last Thursday's abduction of 39 students from the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, and the failed attempt at the Government Science Secondary School, Ikara over the weekend.

In his reaction to Monday's abduction, Atiku repeated his call for the government to declare a state of emergency in the education sector, and to post 24-hour armed guards at every school in the affected and neighbouring states.

"No expense must be spared to keep our schools safe," he said.

The 2019 presidential candidate cautioned that the abductions have the potential to worsen Nigeria's education sector where millions of children are already out of school.

He also appealed that ransoms not be paid to captors, and that law and order be imposed instead to save the next generation of Nigerians.

He said, "It behoves on us as a nation to act decisively and excise this cancer of school abductions from our polity with clinically precise policies."

Monday's incident comes less than a month after 24 students and 12 others were kidnapped from a school in Kagara, Niger State, and 279 schoolgirls were kidnapped from a school in Jangebe, Zamfara State.