The Action Congress of Nigeria and the Congress for Progressive Change on Sunday expressed concerns about the killings in Damaturu, Yobe State and Maiduguri, Borno State, on Friday night, saying the security chiefs must resign or be sacked.The CPC, which spoke through its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, said President Goodluck Jonathan should also resign.Also, a constitutional lawyer, Prof. Itse Sagay, (SAN), supported the call for the sacking of security chiefs, especially the National Security Adviser.But the Nigeria Labour Congress said its concern was not the security chiefs, but the President, who appointed them.The NLC Acting General Secretary, Mr. Owei Lakemfa, who spoke to one of correspondents on the telephone, said the buck stopped with Jonathan.The opposition parties stated that in spite of repeated assurances, security chiefs and even the government that appointed them had shown that they could not protect lives and property of Nigerians.They noted that the killings by the militant Islamic sect, Boko Haram, which the police put at 53, was the highest so far since the crisis started.Although the police put the deaths at 53, some newspapers reported that between 67 and 100 people were killed in the two states.Reacting to the killings in Yobe and Borno states, the ACN said it was horrified at the scale of the terror attacks by suspected Boko Haram members.According to the party, it is time for security chiefs to walk the path of honour by resigning or be kicked out.In a statement in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said it was apparent that those saddled with ensuring the security of lives and property in the country were incapable of doing so.It said, "The shake-up must not spare any of the security chiefs. This is about taking responsibility. After all, they have consistently assured the nation they are capable of stopping these deadly attacks, which have now grown in number and ferocity."ACN said for a country not at war, the death of 53 people - as claimed by the policewas enough reason for any President to be concerned enough to take an urgent action to rectify the situation.The party criticised the Presidents "spin doctors" for saying he cancelled his trip to Bayelsa for a family wedding because of the attacks, saying that it was not what Nigerians wanted to hear.The ACN added, "The government must also consider the possibility that the whole crisis may have been hijacked by other groups."And since it seems the government has now run out of ideas on how to tackle this crisis, we hereby repeat our earlier suggestion that the President should call a stakeholders meeting to help find a way out of the quagmire the country has been thrown into."Also, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Ayo Oritsejafor, said the Federal Government should be decisive in dealing with people behind the attacks.He stated, "The Federal Government should this time around muster political will and deal decisively with the perpetrators of these pathetic acts and insecurity in the country. The government should stop the incessant killings of innocent citizens in some parts of the North."On its part, the CPC advised Nigerians to discourage all attempts to bring in religion into the security and socio-economic problems of the country.Fashakin said, "We must understand that the nation is already prostrate under the present administration. We must not do anything to scuttle the fragile system that we have."From what we have seen. the President does not have the wherewithal to lead the country. It is not only security chiefs that should resign. The President too should sack himself."Sagay, in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents, accused Jonathan of not taking decisive actions.He said the President was only interested in expressing sorrow and paying condolences to families of victims.Sagay said, "In fact, he (President Jonathan) is now a full time preacher, waiting for people to die and then pray for their families and express sorrow and condolences instead of taking serious action to prevent what happened."I think it is only in Nigeria that you can have this kind of successive carnage and destruction of lives and property in such a gigantic scale in which the security chiefs in this country will be sitting idle."He wondered why the security chief had not been sacked.Sagay said, "One may not blame the Army because their jurisdiction covers external aggression and not internal."The Police, SSS and other agencies, particularly the National Security Adviser they have failed monumentally. The NSA in Aso Rock should have gone long ago. What is happening is very disheartening and frightening and we are descending to anarchy, unless something is done."But Lakemfa said the NLC was concerned that measures put in place to check the Boko Haram insurrection in the country were not working.He stated, "On the issue of the security chiefs, we believe that the buck stop with the President; it is the President that appoints his security chiefs, our concern is not with individuals, it is with the President."
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