The Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly (SNPA) has heaped the responsibility for the rescue of the over 200 female students abducted April 14 from Government Girls Secondary School Chibok at the doorstep of the Borno State Governor and the state’s elite.

The group said in a communiqué issued at the end of its emergency meeting held Tuesday in Abuja that “there are a number of unexplained details surrounding the abduction of the over 225 students from Chibok in Borno State particularly against the backdrop of claims by WAEC officials of their initial refusal to conduct the WAEC examination for lack of adequate security.

“It is shocking that till date, the state government has not published the names and photographs of the abducted girls to facilitate their search and identification.”

SNPA said that in the circumstances the Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, local government chairmen, traditional rulers and other prominent citizens and security agencies in the state should take full responsibility for the rescue of the abducted students.

The group in the communiqué signed by its chairman, Senator Chief Edwin Clark and deputy chairman, Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi, alleged that the worsening terrorism in the North-East is aimed at terminating the Goodluck Jonathan administration and warned that the South would not accept any government arising from insurgency.

According to it, “The unrelenting security threats spearheaded by the Boko Haram terrorists, attempting to make incursions into other parts of the country outside the frontiers of the North-East region, is an orchestrated ploy to force the hands of President Jonathan to abdicate his constitutional right to seek re-election in 2015.

“Given the trend of sponsored and orchestrated unrests since the emergence of President Jonathan as the president in 2011, it is clear that these anti-democratic renegades are cultivating upscale violence through the Boko Haram terrorists to drive fear into the president to make him look weak and incompetent simply because he is succeeding beyond expectation in his transformation agenda.

“Let it be known that the people of southern Nigerian shall not allow themselves be ruled by any government that is a product of insurgency or blackmail if the sponsors of insurgency in this country think they can browbeat and pummel the government of President Jonathan to abdicate the authority and mandate freely given to him by Nigerians to rule this country.”

SNPA alleged that highly placed individuals are sponsoring Boko Haram, asking: “How else could the Boko Haram insurgents continue to use highly sophisticated equipment, arms and arsenals without the tacit facilitation by wealthy sponsors and patrons?”

It accordingly challenged President Jonathan “to without further delay, extend the state of emergency in the affected states and make it full scale. Nigeria today is in a state of war against itself and therefore the full deployment of tactics and strategies is imperative to win this war if the country must remain a united country.”

The communiqué asked “the federal government should act most decisively with any observed dereliction on the part of officers and men of the armed forces.”

“Nonetheless, we state with firm resolve that the armed forces must be allowed to do a thorough job of not only rescuing the abducted girls but also clear Nigeria of terrorists of any mould. Nigeria must continue to exist as one secular country where nobody plays the second fiddle,” the SNPA said.

It promised to consult the leadership from the North to exchange ideas on combating the Boko Haram challenge because “Nigeria today is in a state of war against itself and, therefore, the full deployment of tactics and strategies is imperative to win this war if Nigeria must remain one united in-dissoluble country.”

•Photo shows SNPA Leader Edwin Clark.

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