The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has described as gruesome and primitive the bomb attack at the Federal College of Education in Kano State, by suspected members of the armed Islamic terrorists, which resulted in high fatalities. It also charged the Federal Government to urgently set up a special joint military/police task force to take charge of providing all-around security for schools in the country, especially those located in the frontline states of terrorist attacks in the North.

The group which expressed sadness that the nation is yet to get it right with providing foolproof and solid security to students and other civilian soft targets, despite the frequency of attacks by the violent terrorists over the years, resulting in the killing of an unprecedented number of innocent teenage students and the abduction of scores of students. HURIWA, which stated this in a statement made available to News Express, also asked the government to seek broader military intervention of the United States, through the mechanism of the United Nations Security Council [UNSC].

The Rights group said the current widespread terror attacks constitute grave crimes against humanity demanding the broader intervention of the international community.

In the statement signed jointly by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the national Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, the Rights group said there is no distinction between the brutal and bloody atrocities perpetrated consistently by the Northern Nigeria- based armed Islamic fundamentalists and their colleagues of the Islamic terrorist cells currently unleashing a regime of bestiality in Iraq and parts of Syria, under the sobriquet of ISIS.

The rights group, therefore, urged the Federal Government to seek greater United States' military intervention in Northern Nigeria, in line with the current global move spearheaded by the President Barak Obama administration, targeted against the terrorist groups in the lawless region of Iraq and Syria. HURIWA asserted that so far the limited presence of United States' armed security advisers working with the hierarchy of the Nigerian Armed Forces hasn't achieved the intended aim of destroying the armed Islamic terrorists in Northern Nigeria and the release of the over 255 school girls kidnapped from their school in Chibok local council of Borno State since April 2014.

HURIWA noted: "We urge the Nigerian Government to further step up the fight against armed Islamic extremists currently threatening not just the territorial integrity of Nigeria, but also the enjoyment of the fundamental constitutional rights to life and right to freedom of movement encompassed in chapter four of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). We are convinced, even more than before, that now is the time for the Nigerian state to declare full blown war against the terrorists, even while continuing the process and mechanisms of constructive dialogue with any repentant insurgents.”

It also argued that the frequent attacks against educational institutions constitute grave attacks against the right to education of Nigerian Children, adding: "The Nigerian Government should constitute a National Joint Military/Police Task Force to patrol all the educational institutions in Nigeria, with greater emphasis around the schools located in the frontline states of the ongoing counter terrorism war in the North, including Kano State, where several students have been killed in the last couple of months by the terrorists who claim to be vehemently opposed to formal and Western education."

HURIWA stressed that governments at all levels have the primary constitutional responsibility of providing security to lives and property of the citizenry. “We are tired of mourning the unfortunate slaughter of younger Nigerians by these mass murderers who are yet to be brought to decisive justice."

•Photo shows Onwubiko.

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