Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has canvassed academic solutions to the problems of insecurity in some northern states.

Oloyede believes that if the security agencies allow academic research into the activities of the Boko Haram sect identified as the most violent group in Nigeria, it would give room for a better understanding of the group and its activities and prevent further loss of lives and property in the affected states.

He spoke yesterday in Ilorin, Kwara State capital when the Commander, Nigerian Army Education Corps (NASE), Maj. Gen. L. M. K. Banjiram, visited him.

The VC said the arrested members of the sect should be interviewed by the intellectual arm of the security agencies, whom he stressed, could study the group and come up with an objective understanding of its activities.

Oloyede, who also is the executive secretary of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), said he feels unfulfilled as a professor of Islamic Studies with the prevalent lack of understanding of the Boko Haram sect.

"We will only be gullible to think that members of the group are not educated, their very activities confirm that they are more educated than the public is made to believe," adding that "using first-hand information about the sect to conduct a proper research into their activities would help to get to the root of the problem. Education is very important in our quest for peace as a nation."

Oloyede noted that the Nigerian Army Education Corps occupies a strategic position in the Nigerian Army because "no institution in the country gives serious attention and resources to education like the Nigerian Armed Forces."

Earlier, Banjiram said he was in Ilorin for the graduation of NASE trainees and thanked the vice chancellor for the academic support the Army School had received from the university, especially in language development.