By Kingsley Ndimele

A renowned security expert, Dr. Ona Ekhomu has advised the Federal and state governments to urgently target-harden schools in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in order to forestall future terrorist attacks on schools in the states under emergency rule. He also advised that schools in the border states of Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba should receive enhanced physical security measures as displaced Boko Haram terrorists might select those targets and mount spectacular attacks.

Reacting to the killing of 40 students of the College of Education Gujba, Yobe State on September 29, Ekhomu who is President of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria, AISSON, described the attack as “an unacceptable and unfortunate active-shooter incident carried out by a bunch of cowards.”

He urged the government to stop lamenting over the intentional attacks on schools which are “soft targets” by Boko Haram stating that schools should be strengthened against surprise terrorist attacks by improved physical security measures. He advised that multiple layers of concentric security measures should be deployed to protect each school in the states under emergency rule.

Ekhomu advised the government to adopt reliable preventative physical security measures in order to safeguard schools and students, such as school lockdown protocols, metal doors in dormitories and classrooms, skill drills for students, faculty and staff in reacting to active-shooter/terrorist incident, use of security dogs to patrol and detect imminent terrorist attacks, installation of air raid sirens in schools which may be activated when a school is under attack—to alert the students about the emergency and attract military patrols to the school in distress.

Ekhomu, who is the first chartered security professional in West Africa advised politicians to be patriotic and reduce internal tensions in the country by guarding against inflammatory utterances and bellicose posturing.