The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has called on the federal government to have a rethink on the strategies used in combating terrorism in the North-east, saying things are now getting out of hand.

President of the congress, Abdulwaheed Omar, who was reacting over the weekend to recent killings in the region, urged the government to set up a special intelligence unit for combating terrorism in the country.

“It is now getting out of hand, it is turning out to be something else, and we call on Government to have a rethink over what they do. We cannot afford to continue to do one thing every time and we are not getting the right results. We have to change pattern,” he stated.

Omar added: “I think we need to train people specially in the area of intelligence and in the area of combating this kind of terrorism. Let them be seriously trained and let them be sent to nooks and crannies where they can be able to tap information so that we stop this callous killing of innocent citizens.’”

He said it was sad that the insurgents could go to the level of killing innocent students, describing the action as “callous and unreasonable and unacceptable to Nigerian workers”.

Over 40 students of the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Gujba Local Government Area, Yobe State, were attacked and killed while sleeping in their dormitories by suspected gunmen last Monday.

On Saturday in Borno State, there were multiple coordinated attacks that claimed no fewer than 100 lives.

In one of the incidents, two explosives were detonated close to a building where a marriage ceremony was holding and at least 52 corpses were harvested from the debris, with many feared trapped in the collapsed building.

The other attack took place about 55 kilometres away in Mainok village where unknown gunmen went berserk, shooting sporadically and setting many buildings ablaze. At least 39 persons were killed in the process.