Co-convener of the Bring Back Our Girls Group, Aisha Yesufu, says the rescue of the abducted Dapchi schoolgirls and every other abductee, is a responsibility of the government as contained in the Nigerian Constitution, rather than a privilege.
Yesufu made this known on Thursday, while addressing the circumstances surrounding the release of the girls, on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
Her comments come few hours after the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have traded blames over ‘who did what’ in respect to the abduction and subsequent release of the Dapchi girls as well as the Chibok girls of 2014.
While she described the initial abduction as shocking and news of the death of five of the girls as heartbreaking, she said the incident should never have occurred in the first instance.
According to her, although news of their release was liberating, it was clear that the Government had failed to learn from the lessons of the 2014 abduction of the Chibok girls even as they are still seen doing a “comparison of politics”.
“It came to us as a shock, when we heard that the Dapchi girls had been abducted and almost in the same manner as the Chibok girls were taken away and we just couldn’t deal with the pain, having stayed almost four years coming our every day to make demands for the Chibok girls and other abductees.
“The tragedy of Chibok was supposed to be a lesson that we should have learnt from and said never again should such a thing happen and of course again it did happen.
“When we heard about the rescue, definitely we were happy, it was quite heartwarming that children would be reunited with their parents and of course the sadness that five had lost their lives – there are five parents who are grieving right now, who are pained that the daughters they sent to school were taken away from them and here we are, hearing again that a girl was left behind because of her faith and it is so disheartening.
“In 23 days, it will be four years that 112 Chibok girls have spent in captivity.
“What is their crime, is it because they are Nigerians, is it because they are poor, or because they dared to be educated? All of us went to school so if it was a crime to be educated then all of us should be locked up… then we come back and we see this comparison of politics, how can we compare when it comes to tragedy, however, how does it help the five girls that have been lost now, that who did what better, is that what we should be doing?
“There should never have been abducted in the first place, the primary responsibility of government is the protection of lives and property and the rescue of Chibok girls, Dapchi girls, UNIMAID lecturers and every other abductee that is out there, is not a privilege, It is their right as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Yesufu said.
