BOKO HARAM KILLS AGRIC STUDENTS

Very recently, gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect attacked Government College of Agriculture, Yobe State, Killing over fifty students while they were asleep in the middle of the night.
It was reported that some victims were severed with sharp knives by the attackers, others were shot while trying to escape. Several other students were said to have sustained various degrees of injuries as they tried to flee and are reportedly in critical conditions in the hospital.
The Same group reported killed 29 Secondary school pupils and their teachers at night in Potiskum, Yobe State not too long ago. some of the pupils were set ablaze alive and others shot at close range.
Also, the same group killed seven pupils and two teachers in Damaturu, the state capital in a similar attack in a Primary school in June. As a fact, a total of 48 pupils and seven teachers have so far been massacred by the insurgents since June 16 in addition to the latest figure.
We are shocked at the continued targeting of harmless school pupils/students by the dare devils who cruelly killed the harmless and innocent students while asleep at night in their hostels and condemn their gruesome murder in its entirety. The killings are barbaric and unimaginable in a 21st century global world. It is our view, there can be no justification, whatsoever for the deliberate targeting of students and those looking after them.
Ordinarily, in a war situation, women and children and even innocent civilian populations are not fired by warring parties as a rule. But sadly, Boko Haram disregards these war time rules in their armed campaign whose mission or grouse is still unclear to many Nigerians, including the Islamic community. It is highly reprehensible targeting harmless children and their teachers who did not contribute to the problem of society in any way.
It is sad that this ugly incident occurred in an environment where a State of Emergency is being implemented. The question is where were the security men at the time of incident? Why did government chose to disconnected mobile telephony in affected states where the emergency rule is operational? We believe that if the cell phones of residents were functional, the miscreants would not have been able to escape after perpetrating the dastardly act.
We therefore call on the federal government to track down the perpetrators of this heinous crime against humanity and bring them to justice. Nigeria cannot be reduced to a barbaric society where innocent children would be massacred with impunity by Boko Haram insurgents.
Government has to take further steps to forestall any other occurrence of this wickedness by beefing up security around all public schools and institutions in troubled parts of the state. We equally appeal to military authorities and the Nigeria Communications Commission, NCC, to take urgent steps to restore mobile communications services in the affected states , so that information could be easily passed by citizens to security authorities, when the unexpected occur. We believe that if mobile telephones were functional, citizens around the schools would have made contacts that would have dealt with the impunity of the hoodlums.
Beyond the recent activities, we are still worried about the unending bloodletting in Northern Nigeria by this group. We urge a more holistic approach to dealing with the insurgency and impunity of the insurgents to put a final stop to this menace.