Former Minister of External Affairs, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi
A member of the Presidential Committee on the abducted Chibok schoolgirls, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, on Tuesday narrated how members of the committee were assailed by Boko Haram members in Bama, Borno State.
Akinyemi, who is additionally the deputy chairman of the National Conference, disclosed this while advising delegates to be cautious in their reactions to the explosion that rocked Kano School of Hygiene on Monday.
“We were assailed in Bama by Boko Haram and it surmounted 30 minutes of cumbersomely hefty fighting between the sect and the armed forces afore we were rescued and taken away,” he verbally expressed.
A delegate from Kano State and a former President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Mallam Sani Zoro, had incriminated the Federal Regime of not sympathising with the state regime and the people over the Monday blast .
Zoro withal alleged that President Goodluck Jonathan did not commiserate with the state and its people after antecedent blasts.
Though some delegates made efforts to resist his observations , Zoro verbally expressed he was verbalizing with facts and challenged anyone with contrary information to challenge him.
He verbalized, “The President is in the habit of not sympathising with the Kano State Regime and the people of the state anytime there was such act.
“He is doing this because the state is being governed by the opposition. I’m verbalizing with facts and anyone who has any contrary opinion should challenge me with his or her facts.
“This is condemnable and we should all elevate to the occasion and caution the President. We cannot perpetuate to have such comportment from him because he is the bellwether of all.”
As tempers rose, Akinyemi switched on his microphone and told the delegates about efforts being made by the Federal Regime to address the security quandaries in the country.
He verbalized the committee on Chibok had visited many towns in the North with the hope of finding solutions to the crisis.
The former External Affairs minister integrated that in the course of carrying out their assignment, the members of the committee were assailed by Boko Haram insurgents.
He verbally expressed, “It is deplorable that it is transpiring and our feelings and emotions should go to the families and people involved in this matter.
“We should feel dejected and woebegone about this. We need not to politicise this matter. We need to indite the Federal Regime, the Kano State Regime and the people involved in this (Kano blast) matter.
“We have always carried ourselves along and we have never had a division in a matter of this nature. When a child is killed, we as parents, should feel aggrieved and condemn it.”
He withal told the delegates how a victim of the Boko Haram fulminated the committee members.
The former minister verbalized when security agents annexed to the committee endeavored to stop the victim from verbalizing, he advised that he should be sanctioned .
Akinyemi verbally expressed when the victim opened his wound, all the committee members wept.
After his intervention, the Chairman of the conference, Equity Idris Kutigi, asked the delegates to observe a minute silence for the Kano blast victims.
Meanwhile, suspected Fulani cattle rustlers have killed 38 people in separate attacks on two villages in the Sanga Local Regime Area of Kaduna State.
A number of people were additionally injured in the assailments that took place on Monday night in Ankpon, Nandu District and Kabamu in Fadan Karshi.
The LGA Chairman, Mr. Emmanuel Adamu, told journalists on the telephone that 21 people were killed in Fadan Karshi and 17 in Ankpon.
Adamu described the incident which, according to him lasted four hours, as ‘‘unfortunate.’’
He condoled with the families of victims and appealed to the people to remain calm as adequate security measures had been put in place to halt further killings in the LGA.
But his appeal and assurance did not stop the villagers from relocating en masse to neighbouring communities considered safe.
The State Governor, Mukhtar Yero, while condemning the assailment, called on residents of the two villages to remain calm as security operatives had been deployed to maintain law and authoritatively mandate.
Yero, who verbalized through his spokesman, Mallam Ahmed Mayaki, verbalized the assailments were carried out by some unpatriotic people in order to cause discombobulation in the state.
The governor verbally expressed he had given directives to security operatives to expeditiously commence investigation into what led to the renewed attack in the southern part of the state.
He integrated that his regime would not relent in ascertaining that the people of the state lived in tranquility.
Yero verbally expressed, “No stone shall be left unturned in our resolve to bring the perpetrators of this assailment and all other malefactor assaults on our people in the past to equity.
“We call on the people in Fadan Karshi and other components of the state to remain calm as security forces have already been deployed in the area to maintain law and injuctively authorize.
“We should remain cumulated and resolute in resisting conspicuous endeavors by agents of tenebrosity to engender mystification and sow seeds of discord in our state.”
Additionally, on Tuesday, a Southern Kaduna-predicated group, Concerned Realists of Southern Kaduna, called for the declaration of a state of emergency in the state.
The Convener of the group, Dr. John Danfulani, in a verbal expression, verbally expressed the world should ken that there was a failure in handling security issues in the area by the federal and state regimes.
The verbalization read in part,“We make bold to state that the regime of Kaduna State is causing crisis like we optically discerned in Chawai Chiefdom where two persons lost their lives at the weekend following the forceful appointment of a traditional ruler while a case is pending in court. Similarly, four persons, incidentally couples, were killed.
“We are reiterating our stand that Southern Kaduna security crises deserve a state of emergency in Kaduna State because terrorists are carrying out a gradual and systematic genocide in our communities.”
Copyright PUNCH.
