Reps condemn Abuja bombing, others •Ask FG to name NAFDAC building after Akunyili

THE House of Representatives, on Thursday, condemned the Wednesday bomb blasts in Abuja and Mubi in Adamawa State, as well as the terror attacks in several villages in Kaduna State. This condemnation came following a motion on matters of urgent public importance moved by Honourable Christopher Azuborgu, in which he lamented that the terror activities had made the international community to classify Nigeria as a terror nation. In the motion, he urged the House to look into the possibility of setting up of a Terror Victims Compensation Fund to reduce the effect of the Boko Haram attacks on innocent Nigerians and as well the possible ways to halt the killings of community members in the country, following attacks on communities of Sanga Local Government in Kaduna State. “The giant of Africa has now become a place where people die and are maimed by the shrapnel from bomb blasts in the morning on their way to work, in the afternoon as they get on with their private businesses as if we were in Baghdad, Damascus, Afghanistan or Lebanon,” he said. After a thorough debate, the House resolved “to look into the possibility of a Terror Victims Compensation Fund to ensure that those members of our communities who have lost much to the menace of terrorism are at the very least given a helping hand as they try to rebuild their lives and reclaim what they have lost.” It also agreed “to constitute a delegation to pay condolence visits to those who are in the hospitals and to indicate our willingness to assist them in whatever way we can.” This came just as the House called on the Federal Government to immortalise former Director-General of the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and Minister of Information, the late Professor Dora Akunyili, by naming the NAFDAC headquarters after her.