Director General of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has called on the federal government to secure the release of the students abducted by bandits in Sokoto and Kaduna states.

Okonjo-Iweala, while speaking in Abuja on Tuesday at the launch of the WTO-ITC 2024 technical assistance programme for Nigeria, expressed her sadness over the abduction.

She, however, expressed hope that the students get recovered soon.

“I am sad because I am here at a time when once more hundreds of our school children and teachers have been abducted,” Okonjo-Iweala said.

“As a mother, grandmother, educator and someone for whom education is paramount to creating economic opportunities, I am sad.

“And with the representative of my brother, the national security adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, I hope we can be able to recover them soon in Kaduna and Sokoto.”

Recall over 200 students were recently abducted after bandits invaded the Government Secondary School Kuriga in Chikun LGA of Kaduna. school at Gidan Bakuso in Gada LGA of Sokoto.

In a related development, bandits reportedly struck in Gidan Bakuso in Gada Local Government Area of Sokoto State, abducting about 15 Tsangaya students, with several others missing.