The Federal Government is still committed to securing the release of the remaining Chibok schoolgirls and Leah Sharibu, according to the National Coordinator of the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Maj-Gen. Adamu Garba Laka.
Gen. Laka gave the assurance during a press briefing on the State Expansion Programme for the Anti-Kidnap Fusion Cell, organized with the UK National Crime Agency, in Abuja, on Tuesday.
It would be recalled that 276 girls were kidnapped on the night of 14 April 2014, from the Government Girls Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State.
While some have been rescued or escaped from the terrorists’ den, eleven years later, 87 are still in captivity.
Meanwhile, Leah Sharibu and 109 other schoolgirls were abducted from the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College (GGSTC) in Dapchi, Yobe State, on 19 February 2018.
Laka explained that the government has not forgotten the remaining abductees, adding that several of the girls have been rescued by security forces.
He 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 in to rescue 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.
“There are others that have been kidnapped, aid workers, Nigerian aid workers that were kidnapped. We’ve rescued some that are working for UNICEF, UNHCR, IOM and so on. So, we haven’t relented on our efforts.”
“There is also the issue of this lady, Leah Sharibu, not because it’s not always in the press, because we are not always talking about 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.”
