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Lagos – Nigeria’s northern Yobe state announced yesterday it had closed all schools in the town of Potiskum after a suicide bomber killed dozens of students there.Schools will remain closed until security improves, Yobe state governor Ibrahim Gaidam said. He accused the government of not protecting citizens despite declaring a state of emergency in Yobe and two other northern states battling the radical Islamist group Boko Haram.
Chair of a northern state governors’ forum, Babangida Aliuy, called on the government to declare “a total war” against Boko Haram.
President Goodluck Jonathan vowed to bring those responsible to justice. A suicide bomber dressed as a student entered a boys’ secondary school in Potiskum on Monday. Estimates of the number of fatalities varied from 35 to 49.
The attack came six days after a similar one on a Shi’ite Islamic school in Potiskum, in which about 30 people died.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s ambassador to the US slammed Washington for refusing to sell “lethal weapons” to fight his country’s Islamic uprising, saying it has let down an old ally in its hour of need.
Ambassador Adebowale Ibidapo Adefuye says it is difficult to understand how Boko Haram is expanding the territory it controls and the deadliness of its attacks despite the US presence and sophisticated technology in Nigeria. – AFP
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