By: Chioma Umeha & Toyin Adebayo
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has condemned the cruel
attack, Monday, on the Government Science Technical School, Potiskum in
Yobe State, which killed dozens of children and injured many more.
Bemoaning, UNICEF said: “These repeated and relentless attacks on
children and schools are attacks on the future of Nigeria, a country
that already has the largest number of children out of school in the
world. “We call on those with the responsibility and power to bring the
perpetrators of this cruel act to justice and to uphold their
responsibilities to protect children.” It is recalled that a suspected
Boko Haram suicide bomber, disguised in school uniform, killed 47
students in northeast Monday, prompting US and UN condemnation of one of
the worst attacks against schools with a so-called Western curriculum.
The explosion ripped through the all-boys school, just as students
gathered for morning assembly before classes began, causing panic and
chaos. The massacre, described by President Goodluck Jonathan, as a
”dastardly attack”, came just a day after the release of a new Boko
Haram video, in which the Islamist group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau,
again rejected Nigerian government’s claims of a ceasefire and peace
talks.
This story was published in Newswatch Times on November 12, 2014.
