The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately sack the current service chiefs, saying they have lost touch with reality in the fight against Boko Haram insurgents.
The student body also condemned in strong terms the brutal murder of Ropvil Daciya Dalep, a student of the University of Maiduguri.
Its president, Comrade Danielson Bamidele Akpan, while reacting to the murder of Dalep, urged President Buhari to take firm control of the country “so as to arrest the deteriorating security situation confronting the nation.”
Akpan recalled that Dalep was abducted on his way back to school by the Boko Haram terrorist group on January 9, 2019, alongside others in the vehicle to Maiduguri from Jos.
“After days in the net of the dreaded Boko Haram group, Dalep, a bonafide member of the largest black student movement, NANS, was brutally killed on January 22, 2020, in a video that has gone viral in the social media space.
“Others are still held captive and suffering in the hands of their abductors. On a daily basis, Nigerians are kidnapped and killed by Boko Haram and other unknown armed groups,” he said.
He said further that the students were worried that the dastardly act was coming a few days ago when “we were shocked by news of the execution of the chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Michika local government area of Adamawa state, Pastor Lawani Andimi, who was abducted and murdered in cold blood by the same terrorist group in a video recorded and released by the terror group.”
The NANS president also said communities in the North-east, especially in Adamawa and the Borno states, had come under heavy attack with untold casualties and tales of woe that had been either not reported or under-reported by the media.
He said: “At the moment, there is no safe place in Nigeria as abduction is carried out close to the seat of power, Abuja and its environs. Travellers and commuters are regularly attacked, kidnapped and killed around Kogi, Kaduna, and Jos routes.
“We call on the President Muhammadu Buhari, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, to immediately sack the service chiefs as they have lost touch with the reality.
“The rising insecurity in every part of the country must be curtailed, as we call for a halt in the normalisation of bloodletting. We shall commence an action to get our country secured immediately.”
