The United Nations on Wednesday joined prominent Nigerians and groups in condemning the gruesome killing of schoolchildren in the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi in Yobe State by Boko Haram insurgents.
Also, some surviving victims of the attack recounted their ordeal on Wednesday.
According to a report by Nigerianonpoint.com, Aliyu Ayuba, a JSS 3 student, fled the scene with a bullet in his back. He said the assailants; young men and boys in military uniforms and plain clothes, ordered the students to gather in one place and started shooting sporadically. Aliyu added that all his roommates were killed and burnt inside the hostel.
Another survivor said, “I was shot in my left leg, while I was sleeping. When I woke up, I could not walk and was later taken to the girls’ hostel where the insurgents gathered us with the female students. They selected some of the female students and went away with them, while they left some of us groaning in pain from gunshots.”
A teacher, Mallam Samaila Idris, narrated how the attackers drove into the school premises in nine Hilux vans at around midnight on Monday; their bloody operation lasted for over five hours.
He said that those who stayed at the school thought the assailants were military personnel, until the shooting started. Idris added that those in the staff quarters fled before the terrorists started the fire.
Before the National Human Rights Commission, the Nigerian Bar Association, the Arewa Consultative Forum, the Jama’atu Nasril Islam, the Northern Elders Forum, the President of the Senate, David Mark, the Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, and the Prelate, Methodist Church of Nigeria, Dr. Chukwuemeka Uche, reacted, a state hospital official said the death toll had risen from 43 to 59.
“Fresh bodies have been brought in. More bodies were discovered in the bush after the students who had escaped with bullet wounds died from their injuries,” Bala Ajiya of the Damaturu Specialist Hospital said late on Wednesday.
Ajiya added that the school’s 24 buildings, including staff quarters, were completely burned to the ground by the attackers during the onslaught.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Defence and Army had passed a resolution directing the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Kenneth Minimah, to relocate his office to Borno State in order to effectively monitor the war against the insurgents in the North –East.
• UN expresses concern
In New York, United States, the UN, through its Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, expressed worry over incessant attacks on places of learning and advised that the perpetrators be “swiftly brought to justice.”
“The secretary-general is deeply concerned about the increasing frequency and brutality of attacks against educational institutions in the North of the country. He reiterates that no objective can justify such violence,”the global body added in a statement.
One of its agencies, UNICEF also, expressed outrage at the brutal killings, saying it was “unacceptable under any circumstances”
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this vicious attack on students,” its Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Manuel Fontaine, said in a statement.
“Many young lives were lost. Many more students and teachers are deprived of their right to education. Attacks on children and schools are unacceptable under any circumstances,” the UN agency added.
It said that, “When a school is under attack and students become targets, not only their lives are shattered –the future of the nation is stolen.”
• Senate committee orders Army chief to relocate to Borno
The Senate Committee on Defence and Army, which also expressed disgust over the attack, passed a resolution directing the COAS to relocate his office temporarily to the 7th Division of Nigerian Army in Maiduguri for urgent and appropriate steps to quell Boko Haram’s repeated attacks on the North-East.
The committee also directed the Army boss to adopt new methods for curbing the sect’s excesses in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states.
It passed the resolution when Minimah led top officers of the Army to the Senate to defend the budget of the service.
The Yobe massacre was raised by a member of the committee, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, through a point of order predicated on Orders 42 and 102 of the Senate Standing Rules.
The committee, in a two-page statement containing the resolution, explained that, it came up with the decison after a two-hour brainstorming session with the COAS on the way out of the Boko Haram menace.
The committee led by Senator George Sekibo also resolved that all schools and health institutions in the country should be provided with special security.
It gave express approval to the 2014 budget of the Army and told the COAS that what was of utmost priority to it now was stemming the killings in the North-East and not the budget details.
The committee also called on Jonathan to rise up to the challenge by mobilising resources for the Armed Forces to fight the insurgents decisively.
• Mark, Tambuwal flay killings
Also in Abuja, the Senate President, through a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Paul Mumeh, condemned “the gruesome murder in cold blood” of the students, saying Boko Haram had no justification for their action.
He said, “This open declaration of war on everybody, especially defenceless students, cannot be justified. This is inhuman, it is animalistic and barbaric. It is unthinkable that this is happening in Nigeria.
“It is also curious that under an emergency rule when security operatives should be on red alert, mayhem still persists. Honestly, this calls for soul searching and I believe the security authorities must rise to this challenge.”
Mark sympathised with the government and people of Yobe State, especially the families of the bereaved.
Also, Tambuwal called on the military to change its tactics since it was becoming clear that the Boko Haram terrorists were operating at a pace faster than its operatives.
He described the killing as “ignoble, wicked and horrendous,” saying the best way to console the families of the victims was to go after the attackers and bring them to justice.
Tambuwal, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Imam Imam, expressed surprise that the insurgents were now turning to “softer targets.”
He added that authorities were already “ running out of excuses.”
Part of the statement reads, “While we must all join hands to bring this insanity to an end, we must however bear in mind that we are running out of excuses in our responsibility to our citizens.
“We in the House of Representatives feel the grief and pain of the families of the victims. In this their hour of need, we will stand with them hand-in-hand, shoulder to shoulder.
“We assure them that as brothers, we will continue to confront headlong, the threats of terror facing our nation, and we know we will come out stronger, and victorious.”
Also in Abuja, the National Human Rights Commission canvassed an open and transparent trial in a court of competent jurisdiction for those found to be responsible for the killings.
Describing the massacre as “dastardly, barbaric, senseless and horrific,” it expressed its readiness to continue to work towards resolving the security challenges in parts of the North.
“The commission has been proactive in human rights monitoring, protection and promotion and will do everything within its mandate to ensure that Nigerians whose rights are violated can have redress through the commission,” said its Executive Secretary, Prof. Bem Angwe.
Angwe called on the relevant authorities to urgently put machinery in place to ensure that the families of those who survived the attack and those of the deceased were given social and economic support.
• FG must live up to expectations – NBA, ACF, JNI, NEF,
The NBA, on its part, asked the government to live up to its constitutional responsibilities by protecting the lives of Nigerians.
“We condemn this callous carnage, and we hereby reiterate the hallowed provision of the 1999 Constitution which provides that the security, protection of live and property is the primary duty of the government,” the association said in a statement by its President, Mr. Okey Wali (SAN).
In the statement titled, “Mr. President, stop this carnage,” the association added, “We appreciate the fact that confronting this scourge of insecurity requires collective leadership at all levels but we call on the President, the service and security chiefs and governors of the affected states to intensify efforts in addressing the increasing security challenges that we are currently facing in Nigeria.”
In its reaction, the Pan-Northern socio-cultural organisation, the Arewa Consultative Forum, said the killing of the pupils was a “most cruel and gruesome act.”
The forum wondered why the attacks on schools and villages in the North-East had continued despite the state of emergency in the zone.
It said the massacre of the students was completely against the tenets of Islam for which Boko Haram claimed to be representing.
The body, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Muhammadu Ibrahim, appealed to the sect to embrace the Federal Government’s call on dialogue.
It also called on the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, provide adequate security in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.
The Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar lll-led JNI asked the Federal Government to wake up to its responsibility of protecting Nigerians and stop playing politics with human lives.
The JNI, in a statement by its Secretary-General, Dr. Abubakar Aliyu, said the attack on innocent pupils was condemnable, considering that it came barely a few days after similar incidents in Bama, Izge, Malari in Borno State.
While urging Muslim clerics to pray and fast over the continued insecurity in the country, the body called on the government to probe the latest attack.
It said, “As always, JNI will not be deterred nor will it overlook things as they unfold, especially over the repeated wicked acts of terror being unleashed on the Muslims, hence JNI received with shock and distress the senseless killings at the FGC in Buni Yadi by criminals.
“We expect the Federal Government to wake up to its responsibility of protecting lives and property of Nigerians, especially in the North -East and stop its diatribe.
“The Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the JNI calls on all Imams in their respective mosques to commence Al-Qunut (special supplication during human or natural catastrophe, observed during the five daily prayers for ease and relief). The generality of Muslims are also implored to fervently pray for the restoration of peace and security in Nigeria, bearing in mind that without Nigeria there will be no Nigerians.”
The Islamic body expressed concern over the continued killings despite the state of emergency and the numerous checkpoints currently in place in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states and other parts of the north.
The JNI said the perpetrators of the killings must be fished out.
The spokesman for the NEF, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, said the attack on the college could have been avoided if the government had taken the advice given by the group in 2012 seriously.
He argued that since the battle against the insurgents was not a conventional one, conventional methods were not likely to yield results.
Abdullahi said, “Even the world’s greatest powers find it difficult to win this kind of war in the North-East. Government must look at the root causes of this insurgence.
“This is a human problem and if it is a human problem, it is human beings who will sit around a table to discuss this issue. These killings are senseless and we condemn them.”
The Methodist Church, through its Prelate, Uche, expressed ‘great shock and sadness’ over the attack on the college.
In a statement by the Church’s Media and Public Relations Officer, Rev. Oladapo Daramola, the Prelate said he was “praying for the families of the children who were killed and all others traumatised by this horrendous crime.”
The statement added, “The targeting of children is heinous and unthinkable. An event like this reminds us of our common humanity,regardless of religious beliefs, ideological differences or ethnic sentiments.
“This was a senseless loss of innocent young lives, especially since schools should be sanctuaries for our children. These children are innocent, full of life and promise but cut down in a hail of bullets in a preventable act of terror.”
The church warned that “until the promoters of these satanic events are unmasked and brought to book, these attacks may continue unabated.”
Story by: Niyi Odebode, John Alechenu, John Ameh, Olusola Fabiyi, Sunday Aborisade, Ihuoma Chiedozie, Godwin Isenyo and Vincent Obia.
No comments:
Post a Comment