Don’t Treat Missing Dapchi Students Like Chibok Girls – Senate Warns FG

Agency ReporterFebruary 22, 2018

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The Senate has warned against treating the Boko Haram attack on Government Girls Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, like the case of the Chibok girls.

The warning followed the adoption of a motion at the plenary on Thursday which was moved by Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim (Yobe East) on the attack, where 94 students were declared missing out of which 48 had been found as of Wednesday night.

Boko Haram had attacked Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on April 14, 2014, where about 200 pupils were abducted and over half of them had either escaped or released, while others have remained in captivity.

The upper chamber also said there was a “resurgence” of attacks by Boko Haram, which was linked to payment of ransoms to the terrorist group.

Granting payers of the motion, the lawmakers unanimously resolved to “condemn the attack on the school and resurgence of the insurgency” and urged the Federal Government to “urgently rescue the girls and not repeat the Chibok girls’ experience.”

Speaking on the motion, Senator Joshua Lidani stated that the Chibok girl’s incidence should have taught Nigeria the lesson that schools are a major target of the insurgents. He decried that the Federal Government had continued to pay ransoms to Boko Haram to secure the release of captives, thereby empowering the terrorist group.

Lidani said, “We have observed in recent that this spate of kidnapping happens whenever Boko Haram members are being severely attacked or are on the run. They devise a means of going to abduct people so that they would negotiate with the Federal Government for ransom.

“It happened with the recent abduction of some University of Maiduguri staff that were on an exploration mission. The government negotiated with them (insurgents) and they got money. Now, they have been empowered. Even on police officers’ wives, the Federal Government went and negotiated with them and they were given money.

“We need to be very proactive in this case because the idea of sitting down and always negotiating and paying the ransom; we are empowering Boko Haram to continue to do more. This may not be the end of it because after this if they have abducted these girls, they will demand ransom and if the ransom is paid, it means they would continue to engage in this.”