By Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA – Nigeria’s former Vice President and Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar has condemned Monday’s suicide bomb attack on a mosque at the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), describing the action as an attack on education in the North east.

In a statement released by his media office in Abuja, Abubakar said, “following the February 2014 attack on the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, in which 40 male students were murdered, as well as the April 2014 kidnapping of over 200 girls from their school dormitory in Chibok, Nigeria has not experienced any such act of terrorism perpetrated within a school”.

According to him, “The attack on UNIMAID is not just about a bomb exploding in a mosque. Once again, education in the northeast of Nigeria is under attack.”
The former Vice President added that lack of education was one of the most alarming threats to security in the northeast, as many of the terrorists have been shown to be people who have either never had the chance or ability to read the Koran for themselves and interpret the tenets of Islam beyond the false teachings of their terrorist commanders.

“A sound education will provide our youth with the ability to analyse and make informed decisions, an opportunity that many young people in the northeast of Nigeria do not have at present, making it easy for false teachers to control them,” he said.

Scene of a Bomb Blast on Monday (16/1/17) where a professor and four other persons were killed when a seven-year-old male suicide bomber detonated his explosive at the senior staff quarters of the University of Maiduguri in Borno. 15 persons who sustained various degrees of injuries have been rushed to the hospital.

The Turaki notes that the attack on the UNIMAID mosque is particularly worrisome, having come at a time when the terrorist group was clearly degraded.

“We cannot afford to be complacent now or in the future,” he said.

NEMA confirms 4 deaths, 17 injured

Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency NEMA said it’s preliminary report has confirmed the death of four persons and 17 injured.

NEMA’s Head of Information in Abuja, Sanni Datti in a statement said, “one of the suicide bombers detonated his explosion at a Mosque near Gate 1 when people were observing their early morning prayer, the second one occurred around Gate 5 of the University.

“Rescue and security officials were at scene and 17 injured victims were evacuated to Hospital.

“Two persons and two suicide bombers confirmed dead (total of Four) at the time of response”.