Tuesday, 14 May 2013

A country at war

Scene of Boko Haram’s suicide bomb attack on Police Force Headquarters in Abuja.
Scene of Boko Haram’s suicide bomb attack on Police Force Headquarters in Abuja
 
 Tuesday’s declaration of emergency rule in three northern states by President Goodluck Jonathan confirms the fears of many people on the state of security in the country.
Nigerians are living witnesses to the numerous unprovoked acts of aggression by the Boko Haram and its faceless allies intended to disrupt peace and destabilize the country.
There have been several deadly bombing incidents aimed at breeding bad blood among the component ethnic units of this country and the killing of thousands of defenseless Nigerians in cold blood, particularly women and children, in different parts of the North.
The most recent incidents at Baga, Bama in Borno State and Lafia in Nasarawa, in which scores of people, including law enforcement agents, lost their lives to murderous attacks by the same violent Islamic sect and the Ombaste cult, have left no one in doubt that only a decisive action by the Presidency would go a long way in stemming the tide of insecurity in the country.
More so, the attack on military, police and prisons formations in Bama had taken place in the middle of preparations by some members of the Northern elite to consolidate on the setting up of a committee to supervise the planned amnesty for armed insurgents in the region.
A few days after a crossfire between a team comprising members of the Joint Military Taskforce, troops from neighbouring Niger Republic and Chad, and insurgents in crises-ridden Borno State had left about 185 people dead and over 2,000 houses razed in the fishing village of Baga, hundreds of Boko Haram fighters in buses, reportedly wielding sophisticated weapons, including anti-aircraft guns mounted on trucks, had invaded Bama a few days ago. They killed about 60 people and set free over 100 prisoners.
 It was evident that only a desperate intervention can save the nation from chaos. many Nigerians felt the declaration of the state of emergency was a welcome idea albeit long over due.   
About 30 minutes after the declaration, the Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), in the state, Reverend Faye Pama Musa was been shot dead inside his Maiduguri residence by members of the Islamic terror group, Boko Haram
Musa is the head pastor of a Pentecostal church in Maiduguri, was trailed to his GRA residence by two gunmen who shot him at close range at about 7.30pm.
The headquarters of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has confirmed the murder of Reverend Musa.