SSANU Urges FG To Expose Boko Haram Sponsors

The western zone of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (SSANU), has said the only way peace could return to Nigeria is through the exposure of the sponsors of the Boko Haram sect by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The association said Nigeria was “sitting on a keg of gun-powder waiting to explode”, following the seeming inability of the Federal Government to curb the activities of the insurgents.

SSANU made this reaction in a letter entitled: “Urgent need for decisive action on insecurity and terrorism in Nigeria,” signed by SSANU national vice-president South-West, Alfred Jimoh and Zonal Secretary, Abdussorbur Salam, which was addressed to President Jonathan and given to the government of Oyo State on Wednesday, on the abducted students of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.

Leaders of the union submitted the letter to the Oyo State governor’s office, shortly after a peaceful walk from the University of Ibadan (UI) premises to the State Secretariat, Agodi, where over 500 SSANU members appealed for the release of the over 200 female students.

Singing solidarity songs, senior staff from different universities cutting across states in the zone marched through Bodija Market, Awolowo junction up to the Government Secretariat, where a team led by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Ismael Olalekan Alli, received them on behalf of the governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi.

In the letter, SSANU described the incident “as a dangerous dimension to the current spate of insecurity in the land, which further deepened the already existing fear in the hearts of Nigerians over the inability of the Federal Government to ensure the protection of lives and property which is the raison d’etre of government.”

SSANU said President Jonathan should be courageous enough to expose all high-profile culprits and sponsors of the group, noting that the abduction of the female students in Chibok over 30 days ago had introduced a dangerous dimension to the current spate of insecurity in the land, an indication that Nigeria was sitting on a keg of gun powder.

It also expressed the fact that the abduction had created doubts in the hearts of Nigerians over the competence of our country’s security agencies in taming the new wave of terrorism in the land.

“Our concern as SSANU in the western zone is that these trends of insecurity and terrorism are gradually making frightening inroads into institutions of learning. The Boko Haram activities have become an assault on our sensibilities as a people. It has also brought untold hardship on Nigerians who now live in palpable fear, as no one knows who is next”, the letter read.

Alhaji Alli commended the peaceful nature of the protest which he described as a show of support, solidarity to the whole country, stressing that the abducted children were no more Chibok children, but Nigeria’s children. [NT]