The National Assembly, yesterday, summoned the National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno, security chiefs and the Inspector- General of Police to appear before it and explain efforts made so far to rescue the Chibok schoolgirls, abducted on April 14, 2014.
The summon followed a motion brought by Senator Dino Melaye (APC-Kogi West) and co-sponsored by three other senators at plenary session. After considering the motion, Senate urged Nigerians to continue to pray for the release of the girls, and asked security agencies to do everything possible to ensure their rescue.
The upper chamber also called on the Federal Government to take over and rebuild the Chibok Secondary School, where the girls were abducted, to alleviate the sufferings of students resident in Chibok. It further empathised with the parents and the entire people of Chibok and other Nigerians, over the incidence.
Melaye, while presenting the motion, noted that besides the propaganda videos created by the Islamist militant group, the Boko Haram, none of those girls had been seen since their abduction. He noted that apart from the fact that some of the girls were yet to be rescued, the school where they were abducted was still unattended to. According to him, the abduction of the girls has greatly and negatively affected the image of the country in the international community.
He said: “it is a harrowing feeling knowing that these girls are still under the mercy of such a violent group. I can only imagine the state of mind of the parents, guardians and relatives of the missing girls.” Senator Shehu Sani (APC-Kaduna Central) decried the levity with which issues affecting the poor were treated in the country, saying that measures would have been put in place to rescue the Chibok girls if they were from rich homes. “There is a class nature to abduction in Nigeria; when the rich are abducted, it takes few weeks to get them back. Why must it take two years to get the Chibok girls?
“When the Federal Government is ready, I have a strategy and advice to give, a freelance journalist offered to get these girls out and we have not done anything. “Visiting Chibok and talking too much while the girls are in captivity will not help the situation. If we are not careful, we will move from anniversary to anniversary,” he said.
The Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, called on the Federal Government to intensify effort at rescuing the girls, stating that for Nigeria to succeed as a nation the girls must be brought back. Senator Rose Okoh (PDP-Cross River North) decried that two years after the abduction of the girls, they had not been found, expressing concern that they might have been violated and some might have died. However, Senator Ben Bruce (PDP-Bayelsa East) opposed any form of ransom for the release of the girls, advising security agencies to continue with other alternatives for their rescue.
He said: “I do not accept paying them to release the girls because they will use the money to buy more arms.” In his remarks, the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over plenary, complained that the present police system in the country was responsible for the abduction of the girls.
“Our police system, where there are 300,000 policemen in a country of over 170 million Nigerians is worrisome. One reason this could happen is because of inadequate policing. This does not happen in the US or UK. We must begin to think about doing something.
“Until we do something about the nature of police in the country, there is possibility it could happen in other places,” he said. Also, the House of Representatives yesterday called on the security agencies to intensify efforts in recovering the girls.
The House, which described the development as a national shame, also directed the ministry of interior to pay compensation to families of the victims. The decision was consequent upon a motion on matters of urgent public importance sponsored by Hon. Asabe Vilitas Bashir (APC, Borno) wherein she called attention to the plight of the missing girls and their parents.
In adopting the motion, the House resolved to summon the leadership of the Nigerian Police and that of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to explain efforts put in place to locate and rescue the schoolgirls. Leading debate on the motion titled, “the need to intensify search and rescue effort of the Chibok girls in the occasion of the two years anniversary of their abduction,” Bashir commended the effort of the present administration and security agencies in the fight against Boko Haram, whilst urging more spirited effort at expediting action on establishing the girls’ location and rescue.
She told the House that most of the parents, whose daughters were victims of the abduction, have been confronted with various kinds of health challenges due to the trauma and shock necessitated by the unfortunate incident.
Contributing to the debate, Speaker Yakubu Dogara said: “As we lament the length of time taken to rescue these girls, we must, however, commend the Bring Back Our Girls Campaign Group and security agencies in their effort of awareness. This is a despicable crime against humanity. We must not lose our sense of urgency over the abduction which amounted to a state of national shame.” He urged the parents not to lose hope, but believe that “though, mourning is long, but joy would come at the end”.
