Akwa Ibom Governor, Mr Godswill Akpabio on Wednesday urged Nigerian parents not to sleep well until the girls abducted in a secondary school in Chibok are found.
Speaking as a guest on Sunrise Daily, Channels Television’s daily breakfast show in Abuja, Mr Akpabio said “I have four girls in my family; so you can imagine that I am not sleeping well and I don’t expect any Nigerian parent to sleep well until those girls are back.”
He commended the security agencies for working under strenuous conditions, alleging that “there is a lot of politics embedded in the reactions that we are seeing globally” and urged Nigerians to “focus on rescuing this girls”.
He expressed surprise over the “conspiracy of silence in areas where these things are prevalent” wondering why “the daughters of the principal and female teachers in the school were not kidnapped” during the raid.
“Some of them are said to have escaped, no gun was fired; so not a single child was killed” noting that “that has not been the practice in the past and it has taken Boko Haram three weeks” to claim responsibility for the abduction.
Mr Akpabio also alleged that reports in the media shaped the broadcast by Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau.
“For instance we have somebody who said the girls have been sold for N2, 000 and all of a sudden the main man (Shekau) came out on CNN and YouTube and said I am going to sell your girls” urging Nigerians to “drop a little bit of politics and propaganda” because “it is a situation that touches all families”, he said.
He blamed the situation on Nigeria’s “enemies who are out to embarrass the Nigerian government and people” and called for “international collaboration” to solve the crisis before it gets to neighbouring countries like Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Burkina Faso.
He further commended the federal government for swallowing the bitter pill of humility and accepting the offer by the United States to help in finding the abducted girls, noting that “it is not easy as the Giant of Africa for us to accept that we have a big problem and we need the assistance of major powers”.
“It shows humility on the part of the president that it is time for us to accept any assistance from anywhere and it shows serious concern that wherever the help comes from, we must just focus and first rescue our girls and then politics can come in later” he said.
