Yobe killing: More condemnations, as death toll rises to 59

Death toll in the Tuesday massacre of students of the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi in Yobe State, by members of the insurgent group, Boko Haram Islamic sect, has risen to 59, hospital officials said on Wednesday.

The officials said a 16-year-old boy who died of gunshot wounds suffered from the attackers raised the toll to 59.

Girls were spared in the Monday attack but the insurgents have in the past abducted them as sex slaves.

Ten students suffering from burns and gunfire and machete wounds are still in the hospital.

In his broadcast to the nation last night on the country’s centenary celebration, President Goodluck Jonathan again said he was saddened by the massacre of the students.

He commiserated with families of the victims, insisting that terrorism is unacceptable to the nation.

The President pledged that his administration would continue to do everything possible to permanently eradicate the scourge of terrorism and insurgency in the country.

“We recognise that the root cause of militancy, terrorism and insurgency is not the strength of extremist ideas but corrupted values and ignorance,” Jonathan said.

Also reacting to the massacre, Senate Committee on Defence and Army passed a resolution on Wednesday, directing the Chief of Army Staff, Kenneth Minimah, a Lt. General, to relocate his office to Maiduguri, Borno State capital, to step up the fight against the Boko Haram insurgency.

Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, Bukola Saraki, in separate statements on Wednesday also condemned the massacre and described the perpetrators as “bunch of animals.”

The Senate Defence Committee passed the resolution when the Chief of Army Staff led his top officers to the Senate on 2014 budget defence.

The issue of Yobe massacre was raised by a member of the committee, 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 resolutions explained that it came up with the decision after they engaged in a two-hour brainstorming session with the Army chief on the way forward out of the Boko Haram menace in the North Eastern part of the country.

It directed the Chief of Army Staff to relocate his office temporarily to the 7th Division of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri for urgent and appropriate steps to quell the insurgents’ repeated attacks in the area.

Source: Daily Independent