Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President, has accused the All Progressives Congress, APC-led federal government of failing to protect the 110 girls abducted by Boko Haram from Government Girls Science Technical College in Dapchi, Yobe state.
The former Vice President said the APC government failed to use 150,000 policemen guarding VIPs to protect the abducted schoolgirls.
In a chat with ThisDay, the Waziri of Adamawa described government’s failure to protect the girls as ‘carelessness.’
He called on the authority to take firm action to forestall a recurrence in the country.
According to Abubakar, ”Let me paraphrase Oscar Wilde and say that to lose one set of girls to Boko Haram may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose another set, looks like carelessness.
”As an opposition party, the APC was vocal to the point of exploiting the issue of the Chibok girls’ kidnapping. They did not cut the Jonathan administration any slack.
”They criticised that government every step of the way and some may even claim that they undermined the then government’s efforts at resolving that unfortunate incident. ”So, it is rather surprising that a set of people who were so unsparing in their critique of the previous government would be in a situation whereby they have allowed these same terrorists to kidnap 110 girls.
”What would I have done differently? Recently, the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Chief Mike Okiro, revealed that 150,000 policemen were guarding various elites and those we know as ‘big men’.
”If I had my way, I would have recalled all of those 150,000 policemen who are not performing core police duties and send them to provide security for every school in the North-East region. That to me would be a better use of their time and services.
”We already know that Boko Haram has an agenda to cripple Western education in Nigeria. So, how could we have left those schools unguarded? Why should the police be guarding VIPs who can afford personal guards and leave vulnerable girls unguarded?
”We are spending billions trying to encourage girls to go to school only to allow them be abducted by terrorists. I condemn these abductions and I urge the federal government to take firm action to ensure that it would never reoccur in Nigeria.”
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