The immediate past governor of Akwa Ibom State and Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, Thursday accused his colleague, Dino Melaye and other leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of using the abduction of the 219 Chibok schoolgirls to win the 2015 elections.
Senator Melaye had in a motion he sponsored, lamented the plight of the girls and their parents.
He said the federal government cannot be said to have succeeded until the girls are rescued.
He said: “We cannot succeed as a government until those girls are released. Getting back the over 200 Chibok school girls into the society is important and a must for our security agencies.
“The abduction of over 200 girls by Boko Haram has wrongly affected us as a people as could be seen in the international condemnation of the government’s slow reaction to this unprecedented outrage committed against Nigerian womanhood. Never before has such criminal viciousness been perpetrated on Nigerian womanhood.”
Other senators who supported the motion, called on the federal government to go beyond the yearly ritual of celebrating the anniversary of the abduction. They called on the government to explore every available avenue to ensure that the girls are rescued.
Reacting however, Akpabio of the PDP said the likes of Melaye and some top members of the APC used the Chibok girls saga to win their elections.
He warned that no one should play politics with people’s lives.
Adopting the prayers of the motion, the senate mandated security agencies to do “everything humanly possible to ensure the release of the girls.”
They unanimously resolved that the National Security Adviser (NSA) and all the service chiefs be invited to brief the senate in a closed door session on their efforts so far at recovering the abducted girls.
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