PRESIDENT JONATHAN

President Jonathan condemns acts of violence in Jos.

President Goodluck Jonathan has condemned Sunday’ssuicide bombing at the Headquarters of the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) in Jos and the mindless acts of reprisal that followed the incident.
The president in a statement issued on Sunday, by Dr Reuben Abati, his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, conveyed his sympathies and condolences to the`` victims of the odious acts’’.
The president noted that those, who sought to divide the nation by fear and terror, would not succeed.
The indiscriminate bombing of Christians and Muslims is a threat to all peace-loving Nigerians.
President will continue to stand firm to ensure the safety and security of all Nigerians while ensuring that the relevant institutions move against those who disregard the sanctity of life in the pursuit of sectarian ambitions."
The president also stressed the need for national repentance which, he said, was a solution to the dwindling moral values in the country.
Jonathan, represented by the Minister of Works, Mr Mike Onolememen, made the call at the meeting of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria.
The theme of the conference is ``Catholic Education and the New Evangelisation''.
``No time can be more auspicious than this period of Lent to call for national repentance; our citizens must move away from the culture of violence.
He noted that violence `` threatened the corporate existence of our nation,’’ stressing that it should not be allowed to continue.
The president said that moral and religious education, including the dissemination of basic religious knowledge, to the faithful, remained the bedrock for development.
He said the Catholic Mission had made giant strides in Nigeria, especially in the area of education.
Jonathan challenged the clerics to make a critical review of the Catholic education to make it more responsive to the peculiar challenges the nation was facing.
He pledged his administration’s support for the efforts of the Catholic Bishop Conference in its quest to bequeath quality education to Nigerians
Senate President David Mark, who also spoke at the event, urged the church to show interest in government activities and to proffer solutions to some of the country’s problems.
He said that the activities of the Boko Haram sect must be addressed squarely, adding that the churches were now their targets.
The President, Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, the Most Rev. Alaba Job, decried the spate of kidnapping, armed robbery and the Boko Haram insurgence.
He urged the government to urgently address the security challenges.
Job appealed to the National Assembly not to throw the outcome of the ongoing fuel subsidy probe go into a waste bin, describing the revelations as shocking and unacceptable.
He called on the government to punish those found guilty, adding that justice must not be delayed.
The conference, which started on Feb. 25, will end on March 3. gradually and firmly bringing justice to those behind the attacks and exposing their identities and dismantling their terror infrastructure.
"Those behind similar acts of terror in recent times have been arrested and are being investigated with a view to prosecuting them accordingly as a deterrent to others."
The president appealed to all residents of Plateau to remain calm and be law-abiding.
He re-assured the people that efforts were being redoubled to win the war against terror.
Labaran Maku, Minister of Information, said government was still open to dialogue with members of the Boko Haram sect that has claimed responsibility for a wave of bombings in which hundreds have been killed.
Maku said this at a Security Conference organised by UK-based BEN Television in London.
Maku, who said it was untrue that the government did not have a strategy in place to fight terrorism, added: `` in the midst of war you must develop a strategy. ’’
He said some members of the group were willing to talk to the government, adding that it was no longer a unified organisation.
The minister explained that the Boko Haram method of indiscriminate attacks on innocent people showed that their strategy was terrorism.
He said that the methods adopted by the group were similar with those used by others across the globe.
``There are links between the groups in Nigeria and the elements in Somalia, in the Maghreb and Al-Qaeda,’’ Maku said.
Also, Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa , Chairman House Committee on Diaspora, said that Boko Haram was neither a religious nor ethnic group.
The lawmaker, who commended the government for its efforts at tackling the menace, however, said more needed to be done.