‘President must take charge to rescue Chibok girls,’ Ezekwesili says

monjola sotubo

August 30, 2016 3:55 PM

Ezekwesili also said that Buhari seems to be leaving the fate of the girls in the hands of their captors, Boko Haram.

Oby Ezekwesili (R) with another member of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group during a silent protest on August 30, 2016.

Ezekwesili also said that Buhari seems to be leaving the fate of the girls in the hands of their captors, Boko Haram.

She made the comments on Tuesday, August 30, 2016, while speaking with journalists after a protest march in Abuja.

“What we have heard has been a lot of tentativeness, at the recent development where our president said that he is ready to do a prisoner swap and that Boko Haram can nominate an international NGO to intermediate that,” Ezekwesili said according to The Cable.

“As far as we are concerned, that’s not sufficient. What our president needs to do is to take this matter hands-on and to determine a lot of the steps towards any kind of closure on this matter.

“Every time a statement comes out of the federal government, it is tentative. Every time a statement comes out that seems to put responsibility on those who are holding our children, it just makes us feel the kind of decisiveness and the engagement that we should see coming out of this; it is not happening.

“We should be determining a lot of things whether it is military operation, whether it is negotiation, if it’s the combination of military operations and negotiation, we should be in the driver seat of this.

“We are not leaving it to for actions that come from the other end; we must take charge; we are the nation-state. Our girls are out there in the wild with men of dishonourable intent; we must take charge,” she added.

Buhari recently said that the government would be willing to negotiate with Boko Haram for the girls’ release if it could prove it was agreeing with the legitimate leaders of the sect.

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Meanwhile, the BBOG group has vowed to march to the Presidential Villa every 72 hours until the government briefs it on concrete plans to rescue the missing girls.

The over 200 girls were abducted on April 14, 2014, and most of them remain in captivity.

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