BBOG: No sign that govt is genuinely committed to the release of remaining Chibok girls

The Bring Back Our Girls Movement (BBOG) says nothing shows that the federal government is committed to the release of the remaining Chibok schoolgirls in captivity.

On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram insurgents abducted 276 girls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno state.

The sect released 82 of the girls in May, following a prisoner-swap deal with the federal government. 21 of the captives were set free five months later.

Earlier in November, BBOG staged a protest to Aso Rock, Nigeria’s seat of power, to press for the release of the remaining girls.

In a statement on Wednesday, the group condemned President Muhammadu Buhari’s “non-challant” attitude towards other incidents of kidnap in the country, including the abduction of some lecturers of the University of Maiduguri at the Lake Chad basin as well as the reported abduction of some policewomen in Borno.

The group said though Buhari had indicated that his administration is doing its best “quietly” to secure the release of the remaining girls, nothing shows the government is making any genuine effort in that regard.

While recalling that the president had said “it was my great pleasure to secure the release of 102 Chibok school girls”, BBOG expressed sadness “to hear the president mention 102 girls as the number rescued, whereas there are 106 of them now back”.

“We are astonished that President Muhammadu Buhari did even get the numbers right on our girls. The Freudian slip may in fact be an indication of how tangential a priority the return of our Chibok girls is to the president and his government,” it said in the statement.

“The #BringBackOurGirls Movement considers the shoddy and inconsiderate treatment of the families of our missing 113 #ChibokGirls by the president and his government a betrayal of commitment.”

The statement signed by Florence Ozor, BBOG chairperson, read: “How is that despite all the cries of these parents for opportunity to hear from the government on status of efforts to secure release of their own daughters, neither the president, the vice president nor any of their officials have ever contacted them?

“On 13 January 2015, the then candidate Muhammadu Buhari said, ‘we cannot be the country that loses the essence of our humanity, the meaning of empathy.’ It is against this background that our movement wonders if President Muhammadu Buhari is still unaware more than 3 months after that Lassa women/police officers, and the University of Maiduguri lecturers were abducted? Why has the president not considered the humane action of acknowledging their abduction even once?”

The group added that “we demand that the president changes this perception and demonstrate that Nigeria is a country with a soul.

“Our movement restates our unwavering demands for sustained and immediate conclusion of the recovery process of our 113 Chibok girls, the 14 Lassa women and men including police officers and the 3 University of Maiduguri lecturers. We remind President Muhammadu Buhari of his constitutional responsibility to our abducted citizens.”