Gov. Bala Mohammed of Bauchi state has said that the state government decided to close down all the state, federal and private primary, secondary schools and tertiary institutions as a result of the advice by the security agencies in the state.

Mohammed stated this in Bauchi on Wednesday before the commencement of the State’s Executive Council (SEC) meeting.

According to him, the security architecture in the state had received an intelligence of a plausible and imminent invasion of schools and abduction of students in the state, hence the decision to avert the attacks.

“Yes, we close our schools because we were asked to close them by the security agencies as they have more information than us, even though I’m the Chief Security Officer, I don’t have the personnel.

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“They have told us that there is a likelihood of abduction of our students as has been the practice all over which is why we sympathize with other states where these things happened.

“For being proactive is not to create fear but to be safe and secure is better than to go with ego.

“We have closed the schools and we will make sure that we do as much as we can to make those far away or hard to reach and vulnerable schools fenced maybe before the end of this year,” said Mohammed.

Mohammed added that all schools in the state must be fenced with security lights, adding that recruitment of vigilantes would go concurrently with the Safe School Programme as enunciated by the Office of the National Security Adviser which he promised would be implemented 100 per cent in Bauchi.

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Governor Mohammed also said that the five police officers that were ambushed and killed in Darazo Local Government Area of the state was not a banditry attack as being carried by some media but a community related issue.

“We had an incident in Darazo, an incident of banditry as reported but I want to tell you, it is not banditry, it is a community issue. We are here on the ground and we know it.

“We will handle it very well and I want to assure the general public that what happened in Darazo is not banditry but a community related issue and we will handle it with the police and DSS,” he assured.

Amid rising attacks and abductions by gunmen and suspected terrorists, President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday declared a nationwide security emergency.

This was contained in a statement personally signed by the President.

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Tinubu also ordered additional recruitment into the Nigerian Armed Forces and the police force.

More to follow…

US Democratic lawmakers accused Donald Trump on Tuesday of using the FBI to “intimidate” members of Congress and said the law enforcement agency had requested interviews with them following their criticism of the president.

The legislators were among six who this month called on military and intelligence personnel to refuse any “illegal orders” by Trump, who labeled them “traitors.”

“President Trump is using the FBI as a tool to intimidate and harass Members of Congress,” said a statement released by Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan, who are all Democratic members of the House of Representatives.

“Yesterday, the FBI contacted the House and Senate Sergeants at Arms requesting interviews,” they said. “No amount of intimidation or harassment will ever stop us from doing our jobs and honoring our Constitution.”

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The FBI in an email declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The US military said on Monday it was weighing a court-martial against Democratic senator and former astronaut Mark Kelly, who had also appeared in the video released this month which urged troops to refuse unlawful orders.

Kelly, a decorated Navy combat pilot and former astronaut who commanded the Space Shuttle Endeavour’s final flight, fired back that he would not be intimidated or “silenced by bullies.”

Elissa Slotkin, another senator who appeared in the video, said in a post on X on Tuesday that the FBI “appeared to open an inquiry into me in response to a video President Trump did not like.”

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“The President directing the FBI to target us is exactly why we made this video in the first place,” she said.

The six Democrats who released the video did not specify which orders they meant, but Trump has ordered the National Guard into multiple US cities — often against local objections — to curb what he calls rampant unrest.

Overseas, Trump has ordered strikes on alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that killed more than 80 people and which experts say are illegal.

Trump initially accused the group of “seditious behavior, punishable by death.”

Over the weekend, he wrote in an all-caps social media rant that the “traitors” who told troops to disobey him “should be in jail.”