The Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group has said that President Muhammadu Buhari must speedily negotiate the release of 195 kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls held by Boko Haram extremists for nearly three years.
It also asked why two dozen of the Chibok girls freed last year have been held for months for alleged rehabilitation instead of being reunited with their families.
In a statement issued by BBOG in Abuja, the group drew the attention of Nigerians to the silence of the federal government towards a letter highlighting the group’s key observations and suggestions on how to secure the return of the remaining 195 Chibok schoolgirls still in Boko Haram captivity.
It claimed, though, the letter was delivered to the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, with copies sent to the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, and the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, following a guided tour of Sambisa forest in January by some of its members; it has not received any reply from the government.
It said the ‘silence’ that has greeted the letter was in ‘stark contrast’ to the fanfare with which the government extended the invitation to its members to tour the infamous stronghold of Boko Haram.
The statement reads in part: “Concluding on the basis of facts and evidence obtained from the Sambisa Forest tour, we conveyed a more pointed demand on the Federal Government-led by President Muhammadu Buhari to negotiate and bring back our remaining 195 Chibok Girls.
“Since our letter was sent to the federal government over two months ago, our Movement has not received a reply from the Federal Government.
“We consider it grossly objectionable that the Federal Government chose to be unresponsive to a letter that was addressed and delivered to the Minister of Information as well as copied and sent to the Vice President, the Chief of Staff of the President and the Minister of Defence
“We request the rest of the Nigerian people and others around the world who have stood in empathy for the cause of our ChibokGirls to join our movement in prevailing on the Federal Government to act on our demand,” the statement added.
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