Posted on: 04:57 Mon, 08 Feb 2016



Members of the Chibok community in Borno
State yesterday faulted former president
Olusegun Obasanjo’s declaration at the
weekend that it was impossible for the Nigerian
government to rescue the 219 missing
schoolgirls nearly two years after Boko Haram
insurgents took them away.

Obasanjo had argued that it was practically
impossible for the military operatives, who failed
to rescue the girls within 72 hours when there
was a window of opportunity to do so, to now
perform magic after the girls had spent nearly
two years in captivity.

But in a swift reaction to the former president’s
statement, some leaders of Chibok community
said Obasanjo was entitled to his opinion on the
matter.

One the Chibok leaders, who spoke on condition
of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of
the issue, said their belief in the possibility of
rescuing the girls lives on in spite of the lack of
information about the girls since their abduction
on April 14, 2014.

The source argued that though they were
troubled by the continued absence of the girls,
they remain highly hopeful owing to the fact
that not a single girl from the missing 219 had
been identified or found dead in all the raids of
camps and rescue operations so far carried out
by the military.

The community leader said: “Obasanjo is a
respected former president and retired military
officer who may have his reasons for making
such statement but, to us, he is entitled to his
opinion, because we still believe the girls are
alive and can be rescued.

“Our hope lies on the fact that since their
abduction, none of them has been found dead or
alive; and that, to us, it is a good sign that they
are alive. We would have been worried had
there been any form of report that some of the
girls were found dead, or some have been
rescued during the rescue operations that were
carried out recently.”

The source opined that, perhaps, Boko Haram is
keeping the girls as a last bargaining chip.

“Going by the activities of the Boko Haram
terrorists in the last four years, one would be
deceiving himself to say that they are not an
intelligent lot. They know the high premium the
world has placed on the need to rescue the
girls; so the schoolgirls may be their priced
asset for bargain when push comes to shove.

We don’t know where they are, but we believe
our girls are kept somewhere, either within or
outside the country. And our prayer is that, one
day, we may see them, even though we are not
ruling out the fact that it is a difficult task and
all of them may not be rescued at the end of
the day.”