Widespread condemnations yesterday greeted last Tuesday’s massacre in Bama, Borno State by the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, even as the Nigerian Army Headquaters put death toll at 47. Media reports, yesterday had put the casualty figure from the coordinated attacks on Police and Army formations and other public institutions at 55.
Briefing journalists in Abuja, the Director of Army Public Relations (DAPR), Brigadier-General Ibrahim Attahiru gave the breakdown of those killed to include; 21 Boko Haram members, six policemen, 14 prison officials, two soldiers, and four civilians comprising three children and a woman who were burnt to death. Attahiru who confirmed that some arrests have been made in connection with the incident also said that nomalcy has returned to the community.
He reassured that the war against terrorists and other criminal agents in Borno state will be won. According to him, the insurgents who dressed in military uniforms and came in 18-seater buses had planned to unleash mayhem on the 202 Battalion barracks with sophisticated weapons. He said that the attackers were however repelled and the barracks spared from destruction.
Attahiru, who regretted that the Bama Police Station, police barracks, local government secretariat, INEC office, Local Magistrate Court and a primary school were burnt by the insurgents also confirmed that 105 prisoners were freed from Bama prison. He said that four vehicles, 12 IEDs, arms and ammunitions, were recovered from the sect. While he assured residents to return to their businesses, Attahiru said that soldiers have commenced ground and air patrol round-the-clock in the community.
According to him, there have been heightened insecurity in the North-East occasioned by unprovoked attacks by Boko Haram in Baga, Marte, and Bama/ Banki, being the very recent and expressed happiness that the Army have repelled attacks on these locations. Condemning the raid on Bama, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) called on the Boko Haram group to accept the amnesty being proposed by the Federal Government, stop the unbridled bloodletting and destruction of property.
The call was contained in a communique issued at the end of its National Executive Council’s meeting held at the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) headquarters in Kaduna on Tuesday. According to communique, “NSCIA is calling on the insurgents to accept the amnesty that may be offered by the Federal Government and stop further spilling of blood and wanton destruction of property. The Federal Government should as a matter of urgency, call to order, those making inflammatory statements on the forthcoming elections,so that the fragile peace in the country will not be jeopardized.
“The Council strongly condemns the Baga and Bama massacre as heinous crimes against humanity, and calls on the FG to immediately set up a judicial commission of nquiry into the incident and ensure that justice is done. The Council frowns at the continued failure of the state and the FG to implement the white paper of their commissions/panels on various ethno-religious crises and conflicts in the country. Northern socio-cultural group, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), in statement by its spokesman, Anthony N. Z Sani said, “the reported attacks have no imaginable aim, considering the acceptance of dialogue by the authority through which all grievances can be addressed for the good of all parties and for all Nigerians.”
“The forum therefore, appealed to those who enjoy taking innocent people’s lives to stop forthwith by laying down their arms and embrace peaceful means of resolving perceived differences. “Our heart goes to the government and people of Borno state as well as to those who lost their lives and property. May they have the fortitude to endure the losses and the difficult time in the hope that such pains will become history, given determined spirit,” the ACF said.
Also condemning the killings, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said, “while every human life is sacrosanct, it is particularly saddened by the mindless killing of security personnel in the course of carrying out their duties of ensuring the protection of life and property”. It described as barbaric and callous, the killing of defenceless citizens, especially women and children, saying, the perpetrators of the senseless killings have lost their sense of decency and humanity.
The statement read: “Nothing in the world can justify the kind of killings we have witnessed in recent times, and it is high time those who are behind these orgy of violence stop and retraced their steps,” adding that the Bama killings, coming about three weeks after the Baga massacre, portray Nigeria as a country where human lives have little or no value. “This unflattering portrayal can only have negative consequences for our country which needs all the goodwill of its global partners, all the foreign investments it can muster, as well as an environment conducive for urgent growth and development,” the party said.
It wondered at what the insurgents wanted to achieve by attacking women and children in police barracks and targetting health centres, courts and local council secretariat, areas most likely to be populated by innocent civilians. The party urged the Federal Government to work closely with other key stakeholders to find a lasting solution to the Boko Haram crisis, saying, “the time for flip-flopping and foot-dragging is over”. Meanwhile, Interior minister, Patrick Abba Moro, in a statement, ordered an immediate review of the security situation in Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) by the Comptroller-General, Zakari Ibrahim.
The statement read: “the Minister is seriously worried that the dastardly act was committed only a few months after the killings of some prisons officers in a similar manner by suspected members of the Boko Haram sect. “The Minister met with the Comptroller-General and other top Prisons officials in the country to review the unfortunate incident as well as appraise the entire security situation of the NPS nationwide.”
He however, commiserated with the CG, staffers and families members of the murdered NPS officers over the painful loss of their loved ones. He urged security agencies in the country to stop at nothing in unravelling the identities of those behind the heinous crime.
Source: Sun News
No comments:
Post a Comment