The All African Students Union (AASU) have vehemently condemned the killing of four students of the Nasarawa State University (NASU) reportedly gunned down by the men of the Nigerian Army, just as it showed resentment towards similar extra-judicial murder in Ghana University of Education, Winneba in Ghana.
Speaking in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, after attending the finals of inter-collegiate and inter-university debate on “Human Security in Africa,” at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) Centre for Human Security, Awaah Fred, the secretary-general of the union, tasked governments of the concerned countries to punish the killers of the five slain students in both Nigeria and Ghana, adding that it was high time governments in Africa rose up to nation building and tackle insecurity.
According to Fred, “This latest tragedy in Nigeria has come on the heels of an alleged murder of Gideon Aniah Azaare, a final year student of Ghana’s University of Education, Winneba, in a similar circumstance by a yet-to-be-identified officer of the Ghana Police Service.
“Much as we condemned these killings, we also must quickly add that we shall no longer tolerate what now appears to be a shooting spree by trigger-happy men in uniform against students at the least provocation,” Fred said in company of his Executives members, Tsaone Mokwatso and Emilia Unpindi, from Botswana and Namibia respectively.
The unionists wondered why students who were on peaceful protest would be murdered in cold-blood. “This 21st century when civil law enforcement agencies all over the world use dummy bullets to disperse rioters.
He wondered why soldiers would be grafted to quench a peaceful protest by harmless students who were only demanding social amenities that are taken for granted in other well-managed climes, just as he described the killing as “a disgrace to the continent and threat to democracy.”
They urged civil liberties organisations, community based organisation and the religious bodies all over the world to condemn the murders and seek justice in the face of hopelessness
RAZAQ AYINLA
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