Six years after, Buhari outlines efforts he’s making to rescue Chibok girls from Boko Haram den

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, extended his good wishes to the people of Chibok, Borno State, as the people held prayers and thanksgiving services to mark the sixth anniversary of the kidnapping of their daughters by Boko Haram terrorist group.

Over 150 of the girls were kidnapped on April 14, 2014. While many of them have since been freed, some of them have remained in the captivity of the terrorists.

However, in a statement by his spokesman, Garba Shehu, Buhari said he regretted that the current COVID-19 pandemic, with restrictions on movement, made it impossible for any government delegation to be with the people of Chibok during the event.

He told the people that his administration was still mindful of their welfare and their concerns, especially regarding their daughters who are still missing.

On the specific issue of the freedom for the remaining girls held by the terrorists, the President noted that there were ongoing efforts on two fronts:

“The armed forces of the country who are on general operations in the entire region continue in their hope that they would encounter these girls, as they did thousands of other hostages, rescue and bring them back home.

“The nation’s security and intelligence community, in whom a lot of hope, is reposed in rescuing the abducted girls is making a lot of efforts using backroom channels to get them back to their families.

“These are processes, formal and informal that involves different groups with links to the terrorists, and is very tedious and uneasy as is seen in different parts of the world,” he said.

He went further to reiterate that the “issue of the Chibok girls is not a forgotten issue. We cannot go to sleep over this matter. We are optimistic that ongoing efforts will yield something positive.”

READ ALSO: COVID-19: Why we cannot lockdown our region —Northern Govs

He added, “Unfortunately, an ongoing crisis within the Boko Haram leadership, which has led to factions and breakaway groups, brought a number of unforeseen challenges to the process of negotiating with the militants for the young women’s release.

“In the past few years, our armed forces have recorded huge successes in the battle against Boko Haram, but they have also been careful to ensure that as few civilian lives as possible were lost in the process. We would rather the young women still in captivity were freed alive”.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now