The Nigerian government has set up a fact finding committee comprising security agencies, civil society groups and international organisations to get to the roost of the whereabouts of the girls abducted by suspected members of the Boko Haram sect on April 14 and work out more rescue strategies.
The committee was set up on Friday after a meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and Security Chiefs where the security situations in Nigeria’s north were discussed.
This is coming three days after concerned women and relatives of the abducted girls began protest in the Federal Capital Territory to push the government to take action and rescue the girls. The protest is in its third day and the women have said that they would not end the protest until concrete action had been taken.
The functions of the committee are to liaise with the Borno State Government and establish the circumstances leading to the School remaining open for boarding students when other schools were closed, liaise with relevant authorities and the parents of the missing girls to establish the actual number and identities of the girls abducted, interface with the Security Services and Borno State Government to ascertain how many of the missing girls have returned and to mobilise the surrounding communities and the general public on citizen support for a rescue strategy and operation.
They are also to articulate a framework for a multi-stakeholder action for the rescue of the missing girls and advise the government on any matter incidental to the terms of reference.
Brig. General Ibrahim A. Sabo (Rtd.) is the chairman of the committee with Barrister Femi Falana, Hawa Ibrahim and Fatima Kwaku as members.
The committee will have two representatives of National Council of Women Societies, two representatives of the Nigeria Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools, two representatives of the National Parents Teachers Association, twp representatives of the Nigeria Police and two representatives of the State Security Service amongst others as members.
It will be inaugurated at the State House, Abuja on May 6.
The girls were abducted on April 14 after the suspected members of the sect attacked the Chibok community where the Government Girls Secondary School is situated.
The Borno State Commissioner of Police (CP), Tanko Lawan and the State Director of the Department of State Security, Ahmed Abdullahi, on Friday confirmed that 276 students of the Government Girls Secondary School Chibok were actually abducted.
Both men gave the confirmations at a joint news conference in Maiduguri, the state capital.
Mr Lawan said: “So far, we have established that no fewer than 276 girls were abducted at the Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Chibok on April 14, 2014 by suspected members of the Boko Haram Terrorist Group”.
He further disclosed that; “out of the 276 abducted students of the school, 53 female students have been rescued; while 223 are still missing; and suspected being held by Boko Haram terrorists in various parts of the state”.
