Atiku says carelessness of Buhari govt led to abduction of 110 girls

dimeji akinloye

March 10, 2018 5:30 PM

Atiku said if he was President, he would withdrawn the 150,000 policemen attached to VIPs and send them to schools in the north-east.

Former Vice President

He said the APC government failed to protect the schoolgirls from danger.

On February 19, 2018, the Boko Haram terrorists abducted the girls from their hostel in Dapchi, Yobe State.

Atiku said he is disappointed that the Federal Government could not use the 150,000 policemen attached to VIPs to protect vulnerable schoolchildren in the North-East.

"Let me paraphrase Oscar Wilde and say that to lose one set of girls to Boko Haram may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose another set, looks like carelessness. As an opposition party, the APC was vocal to the point of exploiting the issue of the Chibok girls’ kidnapping. They did not cut the Jonathan administration any slack," Atiku said in an interview with ThisDay.

"They criticised that government every step of the way and some may even claim that they undermined the then government's efforts at resolving that unfortunate incident. So, it is rather surprising that a set of people who were so unsparing in their critique of the previous government would be in a situation whereby they have allowed these same terrorists to kidnap 110 girls," the former APC chieftain said.

Atiku had resigned from the ruling party last November and returned to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the party he initially dumped for the APC.

He said he would have acted differently if he was President.

"What would I have done differently? Recently, the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Chief Mike Okiro, revealed that 150,000 policemen were guarding various elites and those we know as ‘big men’.

"If I had my way, I would have recalled all of those 150,000 policemen who are not performing core police duties and send them to provide security for every school in the North-East region. That to me would be a better use of their time and services.

"We already know that Boko Haram has an agenda to cripple Western education in Nigeria. So, how could we have left those schools unguarded? Why should the police be guarding VIPs who can afford personal guards and leave vulnerable girls unguarded?

"We are spending billions trying to encourage girls to go to school only to allow them be abducted by terrorists. I condemn these abductions and I urge the federal government to take firm action to ensure that it would never reoccur in Nigeria", Atiku said.

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The Yobe schoolgirls were abducted at the time Nigerians were still agitating for the release of the remaining Chibok girls who were also kidnapped from their hostel in April 2014.

The Federal Government had secured the release of 103 out of the 219 girls kidnapped by the terrorists.

dimeji akinloye