The Chibok Community, comprising parents and families of the abducted 219 Chibok schoolgirls, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to give the rescue of the abducted Chibok girls a priority attention it deserves, arguing that Boko Haram cannot be said to have been defeated (technically or otherwise) without the safe return of the missing girls.
In a joint statement with the #BringBackOurGirls group, it noted: “We are extremely disappointed that seven months after President Buhari’s strong promise at inauguration and six months after his pledge to the parents, Chibok community and our movement that he would rescue the 219 daughters of Nigeria, the President addmitted that there is still no intelligence on their whereabouts.
“His statement was lacking in urgency and assurance of strategy for result. Further, the President gave the impression of a reactive approach of ‘waiting for credible Boko Haram leadership to tell us whether our girls are alive or not,’ falls disappointingly short of the proactive feedback we expected.
“Even worse, the President failed to offer any persuasive on-going or future urgent strategy for tackling the excuse of ‘lack of credible evidence’ painfully agitates our minds and raised the following questions: What precisely is being done to enhance intelligence gathering? What steps are being taken to acquire credible intelligence? What precisely is being done, and by whom? What timelines are we working with and is it possible to find closure on this issue, or is the matter of our Chibok girls now open-ended?”
The community further stated, “We especially noted with great dismay that the issue of rescue of our Chibok girls and other citizens in terrorist captivity did not feature in the President’s New Year address to the nation today (December 30, 2015). The implication of such a deliberate omission is not lost on us.”
The Chibok community called on the Federal Government to “make public forthwith the General Sabo fact-finding committee report on the abduction of our Chibok girls to finally put to rest the ‘doubts’ by naysayers about the unfortunate incident of 14 April 2014.
“The Federal Government should investigate all statements previously made by state actors and/or high-ranking military officers that ‘we know where the Chibok girls are’, with the view to getting to the bottom of the matter on our girls’ whereabouts.
“The Federal Government should immediately set up a search and rescue team to find our Chibok girls,” the statement added.
The community had earlier expressed displeasure at Buhari’s statement that Boko Haram has been technically defeated.
The community, which spoke through the Chairman of Chibok Community in Abuja and a member of the BBOG, Tsambido Hosea Abana queried why the President would say the fight has been won technically, when some local governments are still under the control of the Boko Haram terrorists.
The chairman noted that communities such as Kalabalgi, Guzamala and Damasak are still under the control of the Boko Haram sect, while roads such as Maidugiri-Danboa Road is still not accessible, and the Boko Haram members are still living comfortably in Sambisa.
-Leadership