President Goodluck Jonathan has inaugurated a committee to look into the rescue of the abducted female students from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State.
The Presidential committee inaugurated on Tuesday will look into issues surrounding the abduction of the girls and also consider possible rescue plans.
“It is not a judicial or administrative committee but a step the government must take to confront the sad circumstances surrounding the situation,” President Goodluck Jonathan said at the inauguration of the committee in the Presidential Villa.
According to him, the committee is not a replacement of the search and rescue operations being undertaking by security agencies. “The operations will continue to be intensified until the girls are brought home to their families, but that the committee is to provide public interface with all those directly concerned with the tragedy to provide a well-coordinated input into the overall investigation,” he said.
The president assured those attending the World Economic Forum on Africa holding in Abuja of a secured environment, pledging that he must bring back the missing girls.
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.
Its functions 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.
