It's a "monumental failure" that 195 girls are still in captivity, says Ezekwesili

dimeji akinloye

January 9, 2017 4:19 AM

The BBOG group has berated the Federal Government for declaring the anti-Boko Haram war over when 195 Chibok girls remain in the sect's captivity.

Oby Ezekwesili

The leader of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG),

Speaking to members of the BBOG movement on Sunday, January 8, during a protest march to the Villa, Ezekwesili said it's a "monumental failure" that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is still unable to get the girls back.

The remaining 195 Chibok schoolgirls have now spent 1,000 days in the terrorists' den.

She said: "We never imagined that it will last more than 30 days, then 60 days came, then two years.

"We have had two governments and yet we have girls who want to be educated still in the grip of terrorists and on Day 500 we had our on our global week of action and we did say that 500 days was too long for citizens to wait, for parents to wait for their daughters to be rescued.

"Today, it is 500 times two. You can imagine how much of a monumental failure it is that 195 of our Chibok girls are still in terrorist captivity."

Another leader of the group, Aisha Yesufu, also said the Federal Government contradicted itself by "the recent declaration and celebration of the capture of Sambisa forest as the end of the war."

Yesufu added: "This action is contrary to the pledge that Mr President and the military have made repeatedly that they would not declare victory without the rescue of our Chibok Girls and all other abducted victims of terrorist abduction.

"Sambisa’s ‘Camp Zero’ is the same stronghold in which the Federal Government stated that the girls were being held and the 21 released were from there. Should parents, communities, Nigerians and the world assume that the Federal Government has given up on the Chibok Girls and other abductees?

"As with the Jonathan administration, the Buhari administration’s response to issues about the Chibok girls is representative of its handling of other issues – insecurity, welfare of internally displaced persons, military welfare, corruption and poor governance.

"Painfully, #Day1000 of their tragic abduction is here and there has been no status report provided by the federal government."

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Over 200 girls of Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno state were abducted by Boko Haram, an Islamic extremist group, in April 2014.

The Federal Government, through the help of the International Red Cross, secured the release of 21 of the girls last year October in exchange for the release of some of the sect's commanders who were in prison.

dimeji akinloye