The National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS), has assured Nigerians that the body would press for adequate compensations for the families of killed students and those who lost valuables in the recent Jos crisis.

The NANS bemoaned the upsurge of religious and communal crises in the country, especially in Plateau State, which culminated in the deaths of students and country’s future leaders, and demanded that these gory incidents must be halted to safeguard the future of the Nigerian nation.

The NANS said it was burdened and overwhelmed by the spate of killings and kidnappings of students in the North-west and North-central states of the country.

The National President of NANS, Mr. Sunday Asefon, said yesterday these in a statement that was made available to newsmen in Ado Ekiti.

Asefon disclosed that the NANS would holds a National Security Summit on October 28 to harness intellectual capacities of various groups in the country to tackle the ugly trends.

He said:

The NANS under our leadership will vigorously pursue compensations for the families of our slain members and many students who lost valuables to this emergency. We call on government at all levels, security agencies to ensure that perpetrators of this evil are brought to book and made to face the full weight of the law.

The NANS calls on religious leaders across the country to embark on teaching religious tolerance in order to discourage their faithful from carrying arms in the name of defending their religion.

The NANS, therefore, condoles with the people and government of Plateau State, the families of the slain students and promise to stand by them as they navigate this difficult time.

We call on the government of Plateau State to go all out to restore peace and sanity to the state and also ensure that families who suffered loss of lives, properties, valuables, and means of livelihood are supported by every resource available to the state to enable them begin the process of healing.

Asefon added that after careful and all-inclusive consultations on the state of insecurity in our schools and campuses, the NANS has decided to convene a “Students National Security Summit” on October 28, 2021, in Abuja.

He said that

the summit has become imperative in our effort to finding alternative, innovative, creative, and students friendly solutions to the challenge of school and campus security in Nigeria. It is envisioned to provide support to the nation’s security apparatuses in their fight against insecurity and crime especially on our campuses.

Through the security summit, we shall bring together critical stakeholder in the security sector, critical stakeholders in the educational sector, critical security stakeholders in all the tertiary institution in Nigeria and the entire students’ union government president.

The decisive part of the summit shall be held in close door to ensure that decisions and new innovations towards safer school only get to the accredited stakeholders in the summit. We call on all well-meaning Nigerians to partner with us on this modest agenda.

The NANS commended the Abia State Government, the Abuja Inhabitant Youth Empowerment Organisation (AOIYEO), the Kogi and Ekiti State Governments and other states that had shown great leadership in ensuring that students were evacuated to safety and also provided palliatives to students during this emergency.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.