There Is Still Hope For Remaining Chibok Girls, Leah Sharibu –FG

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Federal Government says there is still commitment to secure the release of the remaining abducted Chibok schoolgirls and Leah Sharibu and assured Nigerians that the girls have not been forgotten, irrespective of the fact that the wait for their release has been long.

It is worth recalling that a total of 276 girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, on April 14, 2014. It has been eleven years, and 87 girls are still believed to be in captivity.

Also, Leah Sharibu was among the 110 schoolgirls abducted by Islamic State West Africa Province fighters from the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, on February 19, 2018.

Other girls who were abducted were released but Leah, the only Christian among them, remained in captivity.

Speaking during a multi-agency meeting on anti-kidnapping, organised in collaboration with the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency, in Abuja on Tuesday, the National Coordinator of the National Counter Terrorism Centre, Major General Adamu Laka, disclosed that that while some of the abducted girls have been rescued over the years as plans to make sure that others regain their freedom have not relented.

Laka said: “Since when they were kidnapped, those who were rescued were not just rescued one time; It was a gradual process. Negotiations were done, trying to get them out. Operations were conducted.

“Luckily, at the beginning of that, towards the year after they were kidnapped, I was in the theatre, and I know what the military and intelligence agencies put into rescuing the initial set of the Chibok girls.

“We haven’t given up hope on them; some of them were married to some of the insurgents. Some have come out. But let our focus not only be on the Chibok girls. Others have been kidnapped aid workers, Nigerian aid workers who were kidnapped. We’ve rescued some that are working for UNICEF.”

Laka also noted that the silence in the media does not equate to inaction or indifference from the government.

He said, “We’ve rescued some that are working for UNHCR and IOM and so on. Do you understand? So, we haven’t relented on our efforts.

“There is the issue of this lady, Leah Shaibu. So, not because it’s not always in the press.

“We are not always talking about it. It doesn’t mean we don’t care. It doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten about them. We are still on it. Our prayer is that the whole 87 or 80 plus that are left will be rescued by God’s grace.”

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