Delegates want confab closed down over insecurity

The National Conference should halt its proceedings to compel federal government and its security agencies put an end to the incessant killing of citizens across the country.

This was the submissions of some delegates yesterday at the plenary session while discussing the abduction of about 200 girls in a secondary school in Chibok, Borno state and the bomb blast in Nyanya, Abuja.

Pastor Tunde Bakare said the conference should “halt its proceedings until we see changes. Rome cannot be burning while Reno is fiddling somewhere.”

Bakare said the conference is tired “of observing one-minute silence whenever Nigerians are killed.” He said delegates should act by not only condemning but by ensuring that the government put an end to the loss of lives of Nigerians.

He said it must not be said of the conference that while the nation came under siege, delegates were still sitting and talking, showing no concern.

Speaking in the same line with Bakare, a civil society delegate Ezenwa Nwagwu said the conference should stop to “register our deepest concern” to those who lost their lives.

Another delegate from the youth organizations, Ms Mosunmola Umoru said the conference should suspend its meetings for now to show solidarity with the victims of the carnage.

But majority of the delegates didn’t agree that the conference should stop its proceedings over the killings.

Chief Segun Osoba, former governor of Ogun state said instead of closing down the conference, the secretariat should lead a delegation to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and express the position of the conference to him and his government.

But Nwagwu said this was unnecessary, arguing that “there is no need for going back to the same person who convened this conference to find solutions to the problem.”

He said that it was unfortunate that “while we grief, some political parties are busy doing rallies in Kano.”

A female delegate from North West, Fati Ibrahim, said the conference must look beyond expression of sympathy and the national mourning and take practical steps to ensure that the girls who have been abducted were returned in good condition.