FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SAYS BOKO HARAM RELEASE DAPCHI SCHOOL GIRLS ON GOODWILL
“The talks helped to secure the release of the police officers’ wives and the University of Maiduguri lecturers recently. And the talks did not stop thereafter.Therefore, we were able to leverage on the wider talks when the Dapchi girls were abducted. As I said earlier, the insurgents decided to return the girls to where they picked them from as a goodwill gesture’.
“All they demanded was a ceasefire that will grant them a safe corridor to drop the girls. This is not new. Even in larger war situations, safe corridors are usually created for humanitarian and other purposes’, Mohammed told journalists.
“Consequently, a week-long ceasefire was declared, starting from Monday, 19 March. That is why the insurgents were able to drop the girls. This counters the conspiracy theories being propounded in some quarters concerning why it was so easy for the insurgents to drop off the girls without being attacked by the military”, he said
The Minister said the return of the schoolgirls was due to the swift response to the situation by President Muhammadu Buhari, adding that the current government’s response was a marked departure from the attitude of the preceding administration in the aftermath of the kidnap of the 276 Chibok girls in 2014
“Whereas it took that administration 18 days to even acknowledge the kidnap of the girls, the current administration was responsive and was not in denial. No stone was left unturned to secure the release of the girls.”
‘May I also warn against those elements who have chosen to make political fortune of our citizens’ misfortune. Government would not tolerate any attempt by any person or group to trivialise or politicise security issues for politically motivated ends. Accordingly, security agencies would not hesitate to decisively deal with such unscrupulous characters. Those are very clear words that need no elaboration.
