Hope is not lost on the missing Chibok schoolgirls, as the Chief of Defence Staff on Monday assured Nigerians that the search was in progress.
Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh told some protesters at the Defense Headquarters in Abuja, that the military was, however, not using force to rescue the kidnapped girls.
He said that the military had information on the location of the girls but would tread softly to get the students out.
“If we go with force, what will happen, they will kill them. Nobody should come and say the Nigerian military does not know what it is doing.
“We know what we are doing; we can’t go and kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back”, he said.
Badeh further explained that the fight against the insurgents could not be likened to a full scale war.
“If we are fighting an external war, they would have been begging us to withdraw”, he said, adding that the Nigerian Military has shown its abilities in civil war situations, making reference to its role in restoring democracy in Liberia and Sierra-Leone.
He also referred to the war on terror as an unfortunate one for the country. “We are not happy at all, because we are killing our own kinsmen and we are killing mostly the youths.
“We cannot afford to eliminate our youths, who are we going to hand over Nigeria to, we can’t kill them.”
The CDS refused to give details of his statement that the military would not use force in its efforts to secure the release of the abducted girls but gave assurances that the war on terror would be won by the Nigerian military. “The President has empowered us to do the work”, he said.
On April 14 over 200 girls were abducted from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok Borno State by members of the Boko Haram.
While the Nigerian Government makes efforts to secure the release of the schoolgirls, the Boko Haram sect has continued to carry out deadly attacks in the northern part of the country.
An explosion ripped through a drinking centre in Kano, Northern Nigeria on Sunday, May 18 with the Police averting what could have been another devastating bomb blast in the ancient city a day after.
At least 76 persons were killed in two bomb blasts in the central area of Jos, the Plateau State capital on Tuesday, May 20, with another bomb blast on Saturday night along Bauchi road, close to a football viewing centre by University of Jos in which about three people died.
