The Christian Association of Nigeria has said government should go after the sponsors of the terror group, Boko Haram, if it wanted to make progress in its war against terrorism.
Speaking to reporters, CAN FCT Chairman, Rev. Israel Akanji, said government needed to act fasst before the violence spiraled out of control further.
He said: “You know that the present situation we are in is a result of our inaction when things began to go in the way of violation of people’s rights, violence, riot, fight and these things are happening and when they happen Federal Government will set up a commission of enquiry and it will come out with recommendations and it will be jettisoned and nothing will be done. After that, some other groups will go again into another act of violence.
“The government, security agencies will approach the situation, arrest people, interrogate them and usually they will arrest the perpetrators but they do not arrest those who sponsor them. At the end of the day, the perpetrators will be like miscreants, unemployed and jobless people who can hardly expressed themselves, they do not even know why they are doing what they are doing and government by way of investigation will come to realise that one big personality somewhere is the one behind such evil act and such big figure will be left untouched. When you keep allowing impunity to continue to persist in any society then you are going through a complete breakdown of law and order.
“We have reached where we are now because the commissions of enquiries report have not been acted upon; sponsors have not been adequately dealt with. In 1980 when Alhaji Maruwa Maitasine was carrying out his act of violation the government, security agencies had to fight him and at the end he was defeated even though his group was never defeated and they kept perpetrating evil. Probably it is the group that metamorphosed into what we call the Boko Haram of our time.
“In the past it use to be just fighting, burning churches, burning Mosque, burning people’s houses burning business centres and then they use petrol, knife but after sometime people started using guns and now they are using bombs. They are now carrying AK 47, they are more sophisticated and the intensity has increased and the frequency has also multiplied. Right now the only thing that can help us is to begin to take action.
“I was glad when I saw that the State Security Service (SSS) paraded a University don as one of those recruiting people into the Boko Haram and they were able to get him for the world to see. This is good and it is this kind of things that will begin to touch the heart of sponsors of such evil. People walking on the street will not just go and start burning down houses unless somebody somewhere has told them to do so and he has promised them something. Such sponsors are the one that must be napped and brought to book. Sometime ago I was very ashamed of the Senate because there was a Senator that was indicted for sponsoring the Boko Haram activities, and instead of the other Senators to see that indictment as a serious issue and to ensure that it is properly investigated, all the Senators spoke like people that did not love this nation.
“Each of them was just speaking in defence of the said Senator, saying that he is not yet proven guilty. That is not the issue; the issue is that what is happening to the nation, the loss of thousands of people should be the concern of the Senate. They should have said, well he is our colleague but he should be properly investigated because if he is involved in this we too will not support him in this act. Rather the exonerated him. This kind of attitude is wrong; our leaders should stop doing things like this. If you are truly representing the people in every argument you must be seen to be representing the people.”