Mohammed said this while urging media practitioners to intensify efforts according to the priority of national interest in discharging their constitutional and professional duties.

He also noted that the marching order given by the President Muhammudu Buharu to security agents to hunt, pursue and speak to terrorists has started yielding positive results.

The minister made the call on Tuesday in Kano at the opening of a two-day National Conference on Culture, Peace and National Security: “The role of the media”, organised by the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO).

Mohammed was represented by the Director, International Cultural Relations in the ministry, Mrs Maimuna Idu-Lah.

“It is against this background that the role of critical stakeholders, especially the media, cannot be overemphasised.

“Skewed reporting, as well as the phenomenon of fake news, hate speech and misinformation, has the capacity to worsen the security situation.

“They do not only create fear among the citizens but can also adversely affect the morale of our security personnel.

“We, therefore, appeal to our media practitioners to accord national interest priority in the discharge of their constitutional and professional duties,” he said.

Several others including women and children were abducted in the attack which occurred around 1.30pm on Sunday, November 7.

A resident of the village, Musa Sani, who fled to Gusau town told Punch that the bandits stormed the village on motorcycles and began to shoot at people.

According to Sani, he was in the other part of the village when he heard gunshots and screaming of the villagers who were shouting for help. This made him run to the bush for safety.

“I was in the other part of the village when I heard gunshots and the screaming of the villagers. I quickly ran to a nearby farm where I hid until the bandits left the village,” he explained.

“When they left the village, we discovered that they had shot and killed six people and wounded several others. They also abducted many women and children whose number is yet to be known.”

“I decided to leave the village and come to Gusau for fear that the bandits might return because this is not the first time these criminals are attacking us.” he added

El-Rufai disclosed this during his appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, stating that his administration would not negotiate with bandits.

“It has been established that the kidnapping operations (by bandits) are substantially funding Boko Haram activities in the North East.

“Boko Haram has no way of getting any money and some of them have slipped and joined the ranks of the bandits, and together they are doing this to raise a large amount of money that are being used to fund the intensified operations of Boko Haram,” he said.

The governor decried that banditry and insurgency have evolved with time into what he described as a business and a structured industry.

He explained that this was so as the criminals now have various specialised roles within their ranks which enable them to attack communities.

Governor El-Rufai listed such roles to include informants, petrol suppliers, truck suppliers, food suppliers, suppliers of weapons and ammunition, and doctors who treat insurgents who sustain bullet wounds during attacks.

He stressed that it won’t have been possible for Book Haram to get such money to carry out their  operations in the North East without the help of bandits in the North West.

Commenting on if the bandits could be tagged as terrorists, El-Rufai said, “Absolutely, no doubt about it. This is a position we have held in Kaduna State as far back as two and half years ago.

“We insisted that these are insurgents, they are terrorists; they are fighting the sovereignty to Nigeria and we must treat them as such.

“The bulk of the money is going into terrorist financing; there is a branch of ISWAP called Ansar-Ur that is congregating in the forest in Birnin Gwari, led by a man and their objectives are very similar to Boko Haram, except that they are not against western education,” he added.

He said government would rather deploy all necessary forces to eliminate criminals than to negotiate with bandits and terrorists.

Monguno disclosed this during the weekly ministerial briefing at the State House in Abuja.

According to him, negotiating with the criminals would suggest weakness and incapacity on the part of government.

He said the government would not succumb to blackmail and the use of criminals by proxies to harass innocent citizens.

“While the government is not averse to talking it must apply the necessary force because you can’t trust these people.

“Government wants to use military assets to eliminate them but if along the line, the come out, good. It paints the picture of weakness, incapacity,” Monguno said.

The Senate, thereby asked President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency on security without further delay.

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, who described the kidnap of the students as unfortunate, stated that the security agencies had challenges with personnel and funds.

“Abduction of students from school happens in the northern part of Nigeria.

“With incidences like this, parents would be scared to take their wards to school, and the efforts of the past and by present leaders at providing education would be defeated.

“Service chiefs have to secure the schools and have to carry the states along,” he said.

Senator Sani Musa (APC, Niger East), a member of the red chamber said the terrorist who whisked their victims away were dressed in military uniforms.

He said the actual number of students abducted was not known but that the school had over 1000 students.

The Senator said security agencies had explained that they were on the trail of the criminals.

The Senate demanded the implementation of its ad hoc resolution on security and urged the combined team of military and police to set up an operation to destroy criminal camps across the country.

Senator Bima Enagi, also from Niger State, declared that the Buhari regime was incompetent to handle security challenges in the country.

He said, “We need to amend the constitution so that governors should be chief security officers of their states since the government at the centre had failed to protect the lives and properties of Nigerians.

“The Federal Government is busy giving palliative instead of creating employment, thus aggravating insecurity.”

A student was also reportedly killed by the bandits during the attack in the school.

According to a source within the area, the attack started from the staff quarters and ended in the students hostels.

The armed men stormed the school in military uniform Tuesday night.

PRNigeria reports that GSC has close to 1,000 students.

The attackers overpowered the security guard on duty, before whisking away a number of them.

It was gathered that some escaped after the raid.

A headcount is being conducted at the school to ascertain the actual number of missing students.