Treat Boko Haram Activities As Treason — Southern Leaders

President Goodluck Jonathan has been advised to henceforth treat the activities of the Boko Haram Islamic sect as treason, and as a result, apply relevant laws on its members and their sponsors.

This was contained in a communiqué signed by elders from the southern part of the country,? representing the South-South, South-West and South-East respectively, at the end of a three-day conference under the theme, Building a United and Cohesive Nigeria, held in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital yesterday.

The elders noted that the continued escalation of threat to lives and property in parts of the country, perpetrated by the Islamic sect, had caused unwarranted and untimely loss of lives, and expressed concern over the posting of their youths to the North for the National Youth Service Corps programme.

President Jonathan, they said, should not hesitate to rid his government and the nation’s security operatives of men of fractured loyalty and apply the relevant laws on the culprits and their sponsors.

“Until the security situation in the northern part of the country improves, we insist that none of our youths should be made to undergo the compulsory one-year national service in any part of these volatile and life-threatening areas,” they maintained.