By Dapo Akinrefon

In its response, the Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, yesterday, urged Nigerians to rise above any premordial sentiments and rescue the nation from what it described as a illness.

In an announcement by its Nationwide publicity secretary, Yinka Odumakin, Afenifere acknowledged that the current abduction and rescue of the Kankara college boys in Katsina State by bandits was a joke.

The assertion reads: “those that harbour any phantasm that one thing is left on this joke of a rustic referred to as Nigeria should have their eyes cleared after the Kankara sensible joke of abduction of tons of of faculty boys by Boko Haram bandits. The tragedy was Chibok foreplay in 2014 which was a regime change platform however by which earlier lives have been concerned.

“However the Chibok sensible joke was re-enacted a number of days again as President Buhari arrived Katsina and tons of of Kankara schoolboys have been kidnapped by Boko Haram in broad daylight and alongside navy routes like in Chibok.

We in Afenifere are in critical ache that we’re referred to as fellow Nigerians with some folks at this unhappy interval when human lives have been made to be completely nugatory formally. We aren’t doubtful that the lives of those boys should have been used to swipe the cardboard as soon as once more and extra money shall be accessible to terrorise Nigerians.

We name on all Nigerians, particularly the enlightened north to rise and communicate up at this mad season as we will’t proceed to permit this sensible joke to roll over us. It’s time to rescue Nigeria from this illness and we should rise above any primordial sentiments.”

Assault ought to by no means have occurred—UNICEF

Additionally reacting to the discharge of the kidnapped college students, the United Nations Youngsters’s Fund (UNICEF) stated in an announcement launched on Friday stated that the incident shocked the nation. The assertion signed by the UNICEF Nigeria Consultant Peter Hawkins stated, “I’m relieved to listen to that about 344 youngsters are reported to have been launched final evening and we sit up for their protected return to their households. If any are nonetheless being held, we name on the attackers to launch all youngsters instantly. Some other youngsters nonetheless being held captive in Nigeria also needs to be launched. For one week, mother and father have been awake at evening, crying and awaiting the return of their sons. My ideas and solidarity are with these youngsters, their households and the Kankara group – who’ve endured an unimaginable ordeal this previous week.

“Final Friday’s assault, straight focusing on youngsters in the midst of the evening, in a spot the place they need to really feel protected, was an outrage. Colleges must be protected. Youngsters ought to by no means be the goal of assault – and but, far too usually in Nigeria, they’re exactly that – victims of assaults on their faculties. Assaults on instructional amenities are a grave violation of youngsters’s rights. This incident is a disturbing reminder of the heavy toll that violence takes on civilians in north-west Nigeria, together with youngsters,” he stated.

Vanguard News Nigeria

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