Some
gunmen on Monday night stormed an off-campus residence of the students
and called them out for killing. Death toll in the tragedy rose to 40 on
Wednesday after some of the injured students died in the hospital.
Twenty-six
died on the night of the massacre as the assailants shot the students
at close range and butchered others with knives.
Tukur described the killing of the students as barbaric and asked security agencies to ensure that the killers did not go free.
Tukur,
at a breakfast meeting with a delegation from Ekiti State PDP,
condemned the massacre and asked the government to, at all costs, get
hold of the perpetrators of the attack.
The
delegation, led by Mr. Kayode Adaramodu, came to commiserate with Tukur
over the massacre in Mubi, in the Adamawa home state of the PDP
chairman.
Tukur tasked the Federal Government and
all security agencies in the country to ensure that the murderers were
fished out and punished in line with the laws of the country.
He condemned what he described as wanton shedding of innocent blood in the country, saying, “enough is enough”.
Tukur
said, “Every Nigerian must condemn what happened. The killing of these
students is unwarranted and uncalled for. What joy does the masterminds
of this dastardly act derive from the deaths and shedding of innocent
blood?
“We are parents, how would the parents of these students that were killed feel?
“You
sent your child to school to study and the next thing is that his or
her corpse is brought back to you. How do you expect them to feel? These
killings must stop.”
He, therefore, challenged all security agencies in the country to ensure that the murderers arrested and punished.
Tukur
said that the inability of the security agencies to unmask the killers
of the members of the National Youth Service Corps during the 2011
general elections might have emboldened those responsible for the Mubi
massacre.
He said, “First, it was the killing of
members of the National Youth Service Corps. Now they have graduated
into going into the campus to kill the students.
“This must stop. The federal and state governments and the security agencies must ensure the protection of lives.”
The
police headquarters on Thursday said the police had made no arrests in
connection with the Mubi massacre, contrary to reported claim by the
spokesman for the Adamawa State Police Command, Mohammed Ibrahim.
“We
have made several arrests. In fact we have arrested many suspects in
connection with the killings,” Agence-France Presse quoted Ibrahim as
saying on Wednesday.
Assistant Force Public
Relations Officer, Emmanuel Inyang, told one of our correspondents on
Thursday that the police had made no arrest.
“The
police have yet to make arrests but the JTF has arrested some suspects.
They are been screened now and anyone that is found to be involved in
the attack would be handed over to police for further investigation,”
Inyang stated.
He expressed optimism that the collaboration between the police and the JTF would assist in getting to the root of the matter.
Meanwhile,
the Christian Association of Nigeria has condemned the Mubi killings
and called on the National Assembly to fast-track the passage of the
anti-terrorism Bill into law.
The association
however rejected the theory that the massacre was fallout of students’
union election dispute “having regard to the manner it was reportedly
carried out.”
A statement on Thursday by the
General Secretary of CAN, Dr. Musa Asake, also commiserated with
families who lost their loved ones, students and authorities of the
affected institutions.
Asake said, “We plead with
the National Assembly to speed up the bill on anti-terrorism and to
introduce clauses that would discourage those with penchant for murder,
bombing and other terrorist activities.
“After a
careful study of the various reports on the issue, coupled with the
latest information that there is currently a stampede of students and
lecturers who have taken advantage of the free period preceding the
curfew imposed by the state government to flee the institutions, CAN
vehemently condemns the barbaric act of the gunmen suspected to be
members of the Boko Haram.
“CAN rejects the
theory of election dispute as responsible for the massacre of over 40
students, having regard to the manner it was reportedly carried out. It
believes that the reason is phoney and that such a theory, arrived at in
haste, can only serve to shield the real culprits and cover up their
motives.”
Source: Punch Nigeria
- Topics:
- Bamanga Tukur, Death, Goodluck Jonathan
- Countries:
- Cameroon, Nigeria
- Regions:
- Africa
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