Posted on: 11:37 Fri, 08 Jul 2016



President Muhammadu Buhari has
finally approved the list of
committee members to carry out
fresh investigation into the
abduction of over 200 girls from
Government Girls School, Chibok,
Borno State on the 14th of April
2014, by the terrorist sect, Boko
Haram.

The President had in January this
year during a meeting with the
BringBackOurGirls campaign group
directed the National Security
Adviser, Maj. Gen. Babagana
Monguno (retd), to set up a
committee that will carry out a
fresh investigation into the
abduction of the girls from their
dormitories.

A top government source said the
committee is set to commence it’s
work as the President has recently
approved the list of members
submitted to him.

According to the source, the
President had instructed that the
members should be contacted for
consent before their names will be
made public.

The source who pleaded anonymity
said that the President wants to get
to the root of the matter and know
what exactly happened , adding
that findings from the investigation
will facilitate the release of the
girls.

According to the source, the
committee’s terms of reference
include amongst other things, to
carry out fresh investigations on
the abduction and the
circumstances surrounding it.

Recall that while some of the girls
managed to escape from their
captors, the whereabouts of most of
them is still in doubt, though the
President had in different fora said
his priority was to see to the safe
return of the girls. He had also said
government had no credible
intelligence on their specific
location.

While President Buhari had on
several occasions declared that his
government had no concrete
evidence on the whereabout of the
girls, the Nigerian military had in
April this year given the parents of
the girls some hope, saying most of
the girls were still alive and held in
Sambisa Forest, close to the Chad-
Niger border.

Immediate past President, Goodluck
Jonathan had in the wake of the
abduction set up a 26-member fact-
finding committee led by Ibrahim
Sabo to investigate the abduction as
well as ascertain the exact number
of students missing.

The former government it appeared
had also been in doubt as to
whether the abduction actually took
place. Submitting his report, Sabo
had confirmed the abduction
stating that “as most Nigerians
already know, there were some
persons who doubted whether any
student was abducted from
Government Secondary School,
Chibok.

On the other hand, for those who
believed that there was an
abduction, there were lingering
doubts as to how such a number of
kidnap victims were conveyed,
considering also that information
was sparse as to how the raiding
insurgents evacuated the victims.”

Sabo’s committee had confirmed
the abduction of 276 girls adding
that 57 of the girls managed to
escape from their captors.

The rescue of Amina Ali in May this
year, one of the girls who had given
birth to a daughter during the
period she was in captivity, had
rekindled hope of the girls being
found.

President Buhari who met Amina
alongside her mother and brother,
had said her rescue has opened a
new window of hope and an
opportunity towards getting vital
information to help the process of
getting the other girls.