FG goals on Chibok girls same with BBOG, says Lai Mohammed
Nigerian government has said that its objectives of ensuing the return of the abducted female students of the Chibok secondary school tallies with that of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) which has sustained effort at seeing that the abducted students are found and returned to their parents.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made the assertion on a special programme to mark Nigeria’s 56th independence anniversary on Channels Television on Saturday night, he said the federal government’s commitment to bringing back the girls is not in doubt.
In a statement signed by Segun Adeyemi, special assistant to the Minister of Information and Culture and made available to Daily Times of Nigeria, the Minister said though the issue of the kidnap of the Chibok girls is one that should affect everybody, it is not out of place for anyone to be emotional about it, but at the same time we must be rational in our approach to the issue.
“Yes, today might be 901 days since the girls were abducted but it must also be understood that these girls were abducted 400 days before this government came to power, this must not be forgotten and by the time we came in, the trails had gone cold. The first 48 hours after any kidnapping constitute the most critical period” he said.
Mohammed said that “it is necessary to situate the Chibok saga within the proper context, noting that the girls have been in captivity for over 400 days before the Buhari Administration came into power, yet there have been attempts by the government to establish contact with Boko Haram to secure their release (but) the factionalisation within the terror group made it difficult for the deal to go through”.
He recalled that in his press conference with respect to the failed negotiations, he made it clear “that every occasion starting from the one in August 2015 where for 10 days we were at the appointed point where Boko Haram fighters were supposed to be exchanged with the Chibok girls, the factionalisation of Boko Haram played a key role in our inability to secure the release of the girls,’’.
Alhaji Mohammed said the fact that the President approved the deal to exchange even some Boko Haram armourers for the girls is the clearest indication yet of his unflinching commitment to securing their release.
He also said there is no contradiction between the President’s statement that there is so far no credible leadership of the Boko Haram to engage with and the fact that the government has tried three times to strike a deal for the release of their girls.
”Like I explained at that press conference, right from the time when we were approached that Boko Haram leadership wanted to exchange the girls for their people, Mr. President was quite worried because they (Boko Haram) insisted that some of the terrorists who were actually the masterminds behind the bombings should be included on the list of those to be released.
He said that the president accepted to release some of the terrorists, masterminds behind the bombings and the entire process was activated but regretted that for 10 days the government showed up for negotiations, gut there was breakdown in communication and nothing was achieved. “So that was what Mr. President meant when he said ‘yes we are ready to negotiate but that we need a credible leadership to engage with”, the Minister said.
On the night of 14–15 April 2014, 276 female students were kidnapped from the Government secondary school Chibok, in the attack, of whom 53 had escaped as of 2 May. Other reports said that 329 girls were kidnapped, 53 had escaped and 276 still missing.
