The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria has called on the Federal Government to ensure that it tracks down the perpetrators of the coldblooded and gruesome killings of over 43 school children aged 14years to 18 years of the Federal Government College, Bunu Yadi, Yobe State early this week.
In a statement signed by the National Public Relations Officer of PENGASSAN, Comrade Seyi Mohammed Gambo, the union who said it received the news of the killings with rude shock and disbelief.
It also explained that it is necessary that the Federal Government tracks down the perpetrators and rescues the female students kidnapped at gunpoint during the incident.
The union also advised government at all levels to take inventory of all the victims of these horrendous and lingering attacks anywhere in the country with a view to rehabilitating victims of such attacks and minimise the effect of psychological damage on them.
The union recalled that though the attack on the students was not the first time members of the notorious terrorist outfit, Boko Haram, would launched an attack against innocent and defenceless people of this country since the group registered their horrendous presence in the consciousness of ordinary Nigerians and the government over three years ago, this is an attack too many, both in brutality, scope of targets and rationality for shedding of blood of youths that cut across both geopolitical zones and religious lineages of this country.
It equally called on the government to enhance security and underground surveillance at likely targets of attacks, considering how the Boko Haram group has resorted to attacking soft and helpless targets in recent time.
PENGASSAN stated: “We hereby join other well-meaning and concerned Nigerians and foreign sympathizers to condemn this latest assault on our collective safety and cohesion and enjoin the Nigerian Government to immediately deploy all in its machinery to track down members of this sect, especially perpetrators of this heinous crime, rescue the selected females students kidnapped at gun point, ostensibly with a view to using them as sex slaves, while efforts should be made to look at the socio-economic causes that encourage people to volunteer for such unholy assignments.
“Government at all levels, are advice to take inventory of all the victims of these horrendous and lingering attacks anywhere in the country, since the beginning of the insurgency, with a view to rehabilitating victims of such attacks to minimize the psychological damage, while security and underground surveillance should be enhanced at likely targets of attacks, considering how the Boko Haram group has resorted to attacking soft and helpless targets in recent time.”
PENGASSAN stated that the dastardly and repugnant acts of killing innocent students drawn from different strata of the society underpins the historical lack of acceptable logic and sheer force of coercion that seems to drive the agenda of these faceless terrorists whose only declared objective is to turn all Nigerians, at least, those living in the North Eastern part of the country, into their own religion with wrongful and absurd indoctrination of their members to guarantee their commitment to its evil agenda.
“This is why we are most worried as ‘those made to believe in absurdities could easily be swayed into committing most terrible atrocities’,” the union said.
The union therefore expressed its sympathy to the families who lost their beloved children to the dastardly act of cowardice, the Federal Government and people of Nigeria, most especially leaders of the Muslim communities, who have come out to condemn in strong words this crime against humanity.
The statement added: “Our heart goes out to the families of this latest attack while we sincerely hope that the general anger and frustration expressed by most Nigerians over the sad incident would be enough impetus to galvanize those at the helms of affairs in this country to action and make them resolve that never again would our society continue to be a land of pillage and unnecessary shedding of innocent blood.”
Meanwhile, the President of Nigeria Labour Congress, Abdulwaheed Omar, has called for a new approach to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in parts of the North.
Omar said this in Calabar on Friday while reacting to the recent killing of some students of the Federal Government College in Yobe State by suspected Boko Haram sect.
The NLC president was in Calabar for the 4th Quadrennial Delegates Conference of the National Union of Printing, Publishing and Paper Products Workers and a meeting of the NLC.
He said: “We call on government to have a rethink over what they do.
“There is nothing wrong in Nigerian government coming up with special task force, with a special squad to ensure that we get to the root of the matter and it is unbundled and be brought to an end.”
Omar condemned the killing of innocent students by the insurgents, describing the action as “callous and unreasonable”.
He added: “To go to the level of very innocent students who don’t even know what is happening, just massacre them, set their buildings on fire and so on, I think this is a very serious issue and it is unacceptable to Nigerian workers.”
He urged the government to set up a special intelligence unit for combating terrorism.
Omar said: “I think we need to train people specially in the area of intelligence and in the area of combating this kind of terrorism.
“Let them be seriously trained and let them be sent to all nooks and crannies of the nation where they can be able to tap information, so that we can stop this callous killing of innocent citizens.”
He said he had commiserated with Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State over the incident on behalf of the Nigerian workers, adding that he would do the same to President Goodluck Jonathan.
He urged the government to tackle the problem once and for all to ensure peace and tranquillity in all parts of the country.
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