The Federal Government of Nigeria on Thursday reassured that it will continue to strive hard to find the 219 missing students of the Government Secondary School Chibok, Borno State, who were abducted on April 14, 2014 by suspected insurgents.
Hajiya Amina Muhammad, the Minister of the Environment, said this while speaking at the second year anniversary of the abduction of the girls in Chibok, headquarters of Chibok Local Government Area of Borno State.
Muhammad led a delegation consisting of two other ministers to the event. She said: “It is with heavy heart that we visit today. “We visit today because it is not for want of efforts that your children, our children have not been found. “We had prayed that we will bring good news to you now, but the only news that we are bringing to you is our continuous commitment to bring back those daughters to their families and their communities.”
Muhammad said government would continue to liaise with the military and its allies in the international community towards finding the girls.
Other members of the delegation were the Minister of State for National Planning, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed; her Works, Power and Housing counterpart, Alhaji Baba Shehuri; Senator Muhammad Ndume (APC-Borno South); and Senator Binta Garba (APC-Adamawa North).
The ministers joined Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State to offer prayers for the safe return of the teenagers. Some parents and relations of the abducted girls called for more effort for the release of thei girls to relieve their pains.
Leader of the parents, Yakubu Nkeki, in a speech, said the grief and sorrow of their missing daughters were boldly written on their faces.
Nkeki said: “We cannot fathom your definite location and the condition you are in right now. Are you alive or dead? Are you pregnant, put to bed or empty? Have you eaten the food of your choice or forced to eat something against your will? Have you taken your bath today? How do you take care of yourself during your menstrual flow?”
He said they were aware that nobody could answer some of the posers except the abductors of their daughters, urging the government to step up efforts at freeing the girls.
Shettima said former President Goodluck Jonathan should be blamed for the woes of the Chibok parents. He said the schoolgirls would have been freed few days after the abduction had the former president acted.
He said: “The president didn’t even believe the abduction took place. “Perhaps that was why he and his wife never visited Chibok even for once.”
Shettima asked the people to submit the lists of indigenous contractors of Chibok extraction to the government for consideration for the award of contracts for the building of new schools and hospital in the town.
Senators Ndume and Garba, in their separate remarks, appealed to the parents and families of the girls to be united in prayers.
Ndume said: “President Buhari is committed to securing the release of these girls but we need to be focused and support the government. “It is not time for blames.”
Garba agreed with his position. She said the presence of government delegation of three ministers, senators and other senior officials in Chibok to pray with the people underscored the sensitivity of the presidency to the Chibok issue.
The Chairman, Chibok Local Government, Abba Lawan, thanked the FG delegation and the state government.
One ofthe Initiators of #BringBackOurGirls# campaign, Dr. Aisha Bala Usman, also attended the commemorative event.
The Minister later announced government’s donation of a truck of food items, clothing and money to the mothers of the missing girls.
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