Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh, has said the military was avoiding the use of heavy power attacks on the abductors of school girls in Chibok, Borno, for the sake of the girls’ safety.
He, however, assured that the military would free the girls.
Mr. Badeh, an Air Chief Marshall, made the remark when the Board and Management of National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, paid a visit to the Defence Headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday.
The chief of defence staff assured that the military would soon free the school girls from their abductors.
He condemned the activities of the insurgents in the north, saying “what is happening in the northern Nigeria is pure madness.”
“It is not the number of those abducted that is the issue but the attendant psychological trauma of every parent.
“We were given information about where they are. We cannot use heavy power attack because we will kill the school girls but I assure you that we will free them’’, he said.
Over 270 girls were kidnapped from their school, Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on April 14 by gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect. Of this number, 230 are yet to be found and are believed to be with their abductors. Forty-three others have been united with their parents with many of them escaping from their kidnappers.
Thousands of Nigerians have condemned the kidnap and asked the government to free the girls unharmed. On Wednesday, scores of women defiled the rain to protest in Abuja; demanding freedom for the final year school girls.
Support NOSDRA
Mr. Badeh also said the military would continue to support NOSDRA to combat illicit oil exploration in Nigeria, adding that the military was not meant to fight only war.
“If we can employ the navy to clean environment, it will go a long way in sustaining the environment,” he said.
He said the effect of oil spill on the environment and the health of the people was of concern to everybody.
Mr. Badeh said the burning of crude oil by those operating illegal oil refineries was hazardous to the environment.
Earlier, Lancelot Anyanya, Chairman of the board of NOSDRA, said the visit was to express the agency’s commitment to partner with the armed forces on ways to protect the environment.
He said that vandalism in the oil communities had caused damage to the ecosystem.
According to him, oil production is the nexus of our economy, but the process has produced negative impact on the life of the people and the environment.
Mr. Anyanya appealed to the international oil exploring communities to do what was right by giving a premium of respect to Nigerians and their environment.
(NAN)
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