‘Arrest Boko Haram sponsors’ – CAN petitions FG

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."