Chiboks Girls : Buhari vows to secure release of girls remaining in captivity
President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed that as long as he remains the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, the remaining Chibok girls in Boko Haram captivity will be rescued.
The
President stated this in recognition of the fourth anniversary of the
abduction of the girls from the Government Girls Secondary School in
Chibok, Borno State.
On April 14, 2014, the
terrorists invaded the school and kidnapped 276 of the girls but some of
them managed to escape shortly after they were taken, leaving 219 in
captivity.
In May 2016, one of the missing girls, Amina Ali, was found. She claimed that the remaining girls were still there, but that six had died.
The Federal Government had in October 2016 secured the release of 21 girls following negotiations with their captors.
In
May 2017, the government also negotiated the release of 82 more girls.
Others remain in captivity as at the time of filing this report.
In a series of the tweets, the Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said Buhari assured the parents of the girls that "their daughters will never be forgotten or abandoned to their fate".
"Don’t imagine for a moment that we have forgotten about our daughters or that we consider their freedom a lost course," Shehu quoted the President, who is in London, as saying.
Buhari
urged the parents not to lose hope, adding that the government remains
focused and determined to see the girls return to their homes.
The President
admitted that the process of rescuing the girl has taken too long,
blaming the delay on a breakdown of negotiations with Boko Haram
terrorists.
"We are concerned and aware that
it is taking long to bring the rest of our daughters back home, but be
assured that this administration is doing its very best to free the
girls from their captors," Buhari said.
"Unfortunately,
the negotiations between the government and Boko Haram suffered some
unexpected setbacks, owing mainly to a lack of agreement among their
abductors, whose internal differences have led to a divergence of voices
regarding the outcome of the talks."
He,
however, assured the parents of the girls that government is not
relenting, urging them to also have faith in his administration's
efforts to reunite them their children with them.
Chiboks Girls : Buhari vows to secure release of girls remaining in captivity
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