Founder of the Latter Rain Assembly, Mr. Tunde Bakare, has challenged the Federal Government to do all within its disposal to secure the immediate release of the Chibok schoolgirls and the remaining Dapchi girl Leah Sharibu, who are still held in captivity by the Boko Haram.
Bakare stated this while speaker as a guest during the Bring Back Our Girls Lecture on Saturday in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
“The Nigerian government must do all that is necessary to bring the Chibok girls and Leah Sharibu back and alive,” he said. “Not just because their parents and the Nigerian creeks cannot wait to see them back, but also because of what they now represent to the Nigerian nation. Leah Sharibu has become a symbol of the Nigerian constitution.”
Bakare’s comments come four years after the reported abduction of over 200 students of Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State abducted by Boko Haram on April 19, 2014.
While the BBOG marks the fourth anniversary of that unfortunate incident that drew global outcry and condemnation from world leaders, including former United States President, Barack Obama, the group also calls for the immediate release of other pupils still in captivity.
Among which is the yet-to-be-released Dapchi pupil, Leah Sharibu, who is still in the being held by the outlawed terrorists.
Bakare is however optimistic that Miss Sharibu would be released soon, even as he called on the nation’s leaders to see to the protection of all Nigerians.
“Our hearts go out to parents and prayers go out to her wherever she is at the moment. And we affirm in the spirit of hope that very soon, we will see her safely returned to us.
While regretting the kidnap of the Dapchi schoolgirls’ fours years after the Chibok abduction, he described the unfortunate events as a national malady.
This is because the events both occurred a year to the general elections, a situation he feels could have been avoided in the first place.
He added, “The fact that the Dapchi episode happened four years after the Chibok incident and one year to elections just as it was in the Chibok case is evidence of an alarming national malady.
“There is something wrong if a nation is bitten twice, yet never shy with respect to the safety and security of its girl-child. There is something undeniably wrong when its girl-child repeatedly becomes the bargaining instrument in negotiation deals between the government and terrorist.”
With the general elections about 309 days to go, it is expected that the Buhari administration would address the issue of insecurity.
