PRESS STATEMENT BY THE ISLAMIC WELFARE FOUNDATION ON THE BOMBING IN NYANYA, ABUJA

The Islamic Welfare Foundation offer our heartfelt condolences to the relatives of those who lost their lives in the bombing at Nyanya, Abuja on Monday 14 April, 2014. May Allah repose the souls of the departed faithful. We also commiserate with all those injured in the incident. We pray Allah to grant them quick and full recovery.

We condemn in the strongest terms the dastard, mindless and ungodly act of the perpetrators of this heinous crime. Such wanton killing of innocent souls could only have come from deranged minds bereft of any respect for human life. It is a sad reflection of our loss of humanity.

As usual, the authorities have only responded with vacuous assurance that the perpetrators will be apprehended and brought to book. This has been repeated too many times and has lost meaning. As at the moment, only government believes it is on top of the situation.

It is bizarre that, after three years of serial mass murder and wanton destruction of thousands of innocent lives, government has not been able to identify the perpetrators even after the President has openly admitted that their patrons and sympathisers are in high places including his own cabinet. None of the patrons and sympathisers obviously known to the authorities has been unmasked, much less tried for their crime. We need not look further for why the killings have continued unabated and with impunity. Unwittingly, the authorities are becoming complicit in what is fast becoming a crime against humanity.

Perhaps the security implication of these killings is lost even on the authorities. We have been told by the top echelon of our security apparatus that those who perpetrate these killings come from neighbouring countries. These are men, not ghosts, yet they are never apprehended at the border, nor in their movement hundreds of kilometres hinterland. They are non-state actors and they are so adept in beating our security system. What then do we expect if the military of our neighbouring countries choose to invade us? Given what is going on now, it is horrifying to imagine the outcome of such an eventuality.

We wish to strongly admonish those who put religious colouration on these killings that they may unwittingly be serving as red herring, deflecting attention away from the real issues. As we all know, the killers don’t care a hoot about the religions of their victims. More Muslims have probably been killed in these attacks than the adherents of other religions. It is counter-productive to label the perpetrators the authorities admit they can’t identify as adherents of one religion. This can only divide our efforts when we need to unite to fight the criminals.

We call on the government to abandon its rhetorical response to security issues such as happened in Nyanya on Monday and engage in meaningful efforts to contain the scourge. For example, we expect the government to involve our neighbours in such a way that the ‘invaders’ will be apprehended before crossing the border into our country. Government should also expose the patrons of these criminals and bring them to justice, whoever they are. May we remind the authorities that no one is judged by efforts but by results. Therefore, we the citizens will not believe that government is doing anything about securing the country and its citizenry until these killings STOP.

May Allah protect us all.

Mallam Aliu Badmus
National Coordinator

Prof. Abdul-Wahab Egbewole
National Secretary