President Muhammadu Buhari has assured the people of Chibok that his administration has not swept the issue of the kidnapped Chibok Girls under the carpet.
A statement by his spokesman, Garba Shehu, in Abuja on Monday, quoted Buhari as saying that he regretted that the current Covid-19 pandemic, with restrictions on movement, had made it impossible for any government delegation to be with them during the event.
He however restated that he was still mindful of their welfare and their concerns, especially regarding their daughters who are still missing.
The statement read in part: “The armed forces of the country who are on general operations in the entire region continue in their hope that they would encounter these girls, rescue and bring them back home, as they did with thousands of other hostages.
“The nation’s security and intelligence community, in whom a lot of hope, is reposed in rescuing the abducted girls is making a lot of efforts using backroom channels to get them back to their families.
“These are processes, formal and informal that involves different groups with links to the terrorists, and are very tedious and uneasy as seen in different parts of the world.
“The issue of the Chibok Girls is not a forgotten issue. We cannot go to sleep over this matter. We are optimistic that ongoing efforts will yield something positive.
“Unfortunately, an ongoing crisis within the Boko Haram leadership, which has led to factions and breakaway groups, brought a number of unforeseen challenges to the process of negotiating with the militants for the young women’s release.
”In the past few years, our armed forces have recorded huge successes in the battle against Boko Haram, but they have also been careful to ensure that as few civilian lives as possible were lost in the process. We would rather wish the young women still in captivity were freed alive.”
