NGOs Decry Yobe School Massacre, Faults Govt Insensitivity …UN, US Too

The recent massacre of 47 students in Yobe State by suspected Boko Haram suicide bomber has come under criticism by two child’s right non-governmental organisations.
United Kingdom-based Africans Unite Against Child Abuse (AFRUCA) and Nigerian organisation, the Centre for Children’s Health Education, Orientation and Protection (CEE-HOPE) described the November 10 cold-blooded murder of students in their school assembly as ‘one massacre too many of defenceless and hapless Nigerian children’.
‘Our organizations express deep shock and unreservedly condemn the cold-blooded murder of innocent students of the Government Comprehensive Senior Science Secondary School, Potiskum, Yobe State on Monday 10 November 2015.This is one massacre of defenseless children too many and the Nigerian government must rise to the occasion in performing its constitutional duty of ensuring full protection for its citizens especially the very vulnerable including school children who have a fundamental right to acquiring education without violence visited on them, and this constitutional rights must be upheld by all.”
“It is the height of insanity for any group waging a war against a state to have as its sole characteristic the brutal annihilation of armless and completely hapless citizens. It beats every human imagination and these wanton destructions should attract global condemnation and action,” the statement said.
Debbie Ariyo (OBE), Executive Director of AFRUCA UK wondered what became of the highly publicized Safer School Initiative launched at the UK House of Commons by Gordon Brown and Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s Finance Minister on 2 July 2014 and why school children would be exposed to harm when the government, responsible for their security has no adequate safeguard structure in place. “It is truly incredible that since the Chibok Secondary School abductions in April 2014, nothing seemed to have been done to ensure better protection for schools in the areas where Boko Haram are known to be operating. There are many well qualified Nigerians in the diaspora who can be called upon to help but this is not happening. Instead, we have to contend with gory details of schools being attacked and children being massacred”.
On her part, Betty Abah, CEE-HOPE’s founder faulted what she described as another round of government’s insensitivity in the face of unprecedented and preventable waste of Nigerian lives in recent times.
“It is not enough to make an already scripted message perennially ‘condemning’ acts of terrorism against innocent Nigerians and this time, vulnerable children whose only crime is aspiring for an education that would better their livs. The government must show that it is capable of not only protecting Nigerians in every corner of the country but is also sensitive to their sufferings and grieves, and respects the memory of the needlessly slain.”
According to her, this is a pattern too often and too unbecoming. “Last time the President went on to celebrate at a Centenary party after the slaughter of 59 male students at Government Secondary School, BuniYadi. He then flew to Kano for another round of celebration following the gruesome attack in Nyanya which claimed about 200 lives, and then on to Ibadan for a birthday bash. Unfortunately, the president is also celebrating yet another bash to announce his nomination to contest the Presidency for another four years. We believe this is wholly insensitive, and is absolutely unacceptable.”
The statement further questioned the point of the state of emergency imposed on states in the North East which instead have experienced unabated attacks by terrorist groups. It calls on the United Nations to intervene in order to ensure the protection of lives especially children and vulnerable people.
Meanwhile, International condemnation have continued to  trailed Monday’s suicide  bomb attack at a government boarding school in Potiskum, Yobe, which reportedly killed several students and wounded others.
A statement issued by the U.S. embassy in Abuja condemned in the strongest terms, the incessant attacks on defenceless civilians in North East Nigeria this past week.
The statement cited recent attacks in Ashura in Potiskum in Yobe, Gombe, Malam Fatori in Borno and Azare in Bauchi State, noting that “while final numbers are not known, scores of persons have been killed or injured in these attacks. “The U.S. offers its sincere sympathy to the injured and to the families of the murdered. “We urge the government of Nigeria to investigate these and other attacks to bring the perpetrators to justice.’’

Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr Dan Bature (right), with Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Rivers State Council, Mr Opaka Dokubo, during a courtesy visit by the CP to the council in Port Harcourt, yesterday. Photo: Ibioye Diama