Abducted girls: Hopes of early rescue dim

Hopes of an early rescue for the  schoolgirls  abducted by Boko Haram insurgents  at the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok,  Borno State, appeared dim  as security agencies are yet to discover the exact location of the pupils, Saturday Punch’s investigations have revealed.

Although  the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, had assured Nigerians that security agencies would soon  close in on the abductors and rescue the girls,  Saturday Punch  authoritatively learnt  that the agencies had yet to make any breakthrough in their investigations into the whereabouts of the  girls. The girls were  abducted  on April 14, 2014.

Some parents had on Tuesday said that the children had been taken to Cameroon and Chad by their abductors, who married them off.

But a security source said that the military believed that the girls and their abductors are still within the country.

He stated, “There is confusion on the issue. While the parents are saying that the girls have been ferried out of the country, security agencies believe that they are in the country.”

“But the truth is that we do not know for sure where the girls are. We don’t know the exact place that the insurgents have carried the girls to, though we believe the girls and their  abductors  are still within  Nigeria.’’

Investigations  further showed that  the  military was in a dilemma as to how the  rescue operation could  be conducted without any of the girls being killed or injured.

“Even  if we know where they are, we do not want to strike in such a way that the girls will be injured,” the source added.

The source said that President Goodluck Jonathan had ordered that all the girls should be brought back to their parents alive.

It was gathered that the situation was worsened by the lack of cooperation among stakeholders, including parents, security agencies as well as states and federal governments.

He said, “We cannot just be discussing all our operations in the media. As the Chief of Defence Staff has said, the military does not want to kill the girls.’’

It was gathered that the insurgents were determined to use the girls as human shields if the military attacked them.

The Chief of Defence Staff had on Wednesday said, “Where we are told that they are, we can’t go there with our armoury, otherwise, we will go and kill them. If you go and kill them, then you will not have achieved anything. But I know we will get those girls. I know we will get them.”

But a security consultant, Ben Okezie, expressed doubts about the capability of the military to rescue the girls.

He said that the force was willing to combat terrorism, but lacked the logistics to do so.

He stated that the huge security budget to the security agencies should be probed to know how it was spent, noting that Nigerians needed to ask questions.

Okezie said, “I am sure the military wants to work but it does not have the logistics. Unfortunately, the people are not speaking out. The police had the same problem and were not speaking out until Mohammed Abubakar became the Inspector General of Police.  I found out that the military doesn’t have the logistics and we need to start asking questions.

“All the money appropriated during the tenure of the  former Chief of Defence Staff, Azubuike Ihejirika, what happened to it? Nobody should say Army budget cannot be probed, it’s not true, it’s  our money. Ihejirika’s tenure should be probed.”

Source : Punch