Date: 2012-01-24

The council urged the Federal Government to "recognise that Boko Haram has declared war on the Nigerian nation and government". It added that the government should confront the sect with maximum force. The council said the protection of the Nigerian borders from infiltrators by the Federal Government is among the solutions to the sect's menace. Rising an emergency meeting in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, the Chairman of the council, Prof Gabriel Olatunji said: "The government should protect more effectively our porous borders through which the Boko Haram aliens infiltrate the country." He urged the government to secure and guarantee the future unity of the country through drastic measures. Olatunji said: "The government should put under strict security surveillance, Boko Haram sympathisers and collaborators who regard themselves as sacred cows. The government should harmonise strategies to access information on threats to the unity of the country from friendly nations and people around the targeted regions without necessarily exposing them to dangers. "We condemn the barbaric, dastardly, inhuman killing of innocent citizens in various locations across the country. The aim of Boko Haram to cause religious disaffection between the two great faiths, that is, Christianity and Islam, is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to succeed. Their act, which is a violation of all true religious teachings, is condemned in its entirety."