Shehu Sani reveals how Chibok girls can be rescued
- Senator insists that negotiation is the best way to rescue kidnapped Chibok secondary school girls
- Warns that there are certain individuals benefiting from insurgency in the country
- Hails President Buhari's anti-terrorism battle
If recent reports are anything to go by, the over 200 secondary school girls kidnapped from Chibok over a year ago are still alive.
This much was disclosed by Shehu Sani, the senator representing Kaduna central senatorial district, who insisted that the missing Chibok girls will be found, on the grounds that the federal government negotiates with some persons to 'extract' the girls from danger.
According to Premium Times, Sani, who spoke in Akure, during a symposium held as part of the 40th anniversary celebration of Ondo state on Wednesday, Febryary 24, noted happenings in the country right now reveal that the reign of bloodshed by Boko Haram in the last seven years was strengthened by a few greedy people who profited from the situation.
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He said: "Something that has bothered some of us here in line with the insurgency is, when will the Chibok girls be freed.
"Someone said the Chibok girls will never be free, but I can tell you that they will be free and they are alive.
"There are two ways to get them: the first is to use force to free them and before you apply force, you have to know where they are. You also have to weigh the consequences of raiding the camp with such number of persons, because the insurgents have nothing to lose.
"The second option is to explore ways of extracting them out through negotiation and negotiation is still possible."
Speaking further, Sani informed that the federal government needs to reach out to some people who may help with the negotiation.
According to him, "There are a few people, not a panel of eminent Nigerians or a panel, there are a few people who the government needs to reach out to."
Sani stated however, that the issue of insurgency is beneficial to some Nigerians who have sabotaged initial efforts to negotiate with the terrorists with a view to resolving the impasse between them and the federal government.
He lamented that, "they said they were going to free the girls on the condition we freed their people. And when we came to the negotiating table, and the government said it cannot free the terrorists because they have done a lot of harm.
"For those who have been following events in the last six to seven years, we have seen how some of us from the north, particularly myself, I tried to find an alternative means of addressing the problem of the insurgency.
"I took the risk of reaching out to the insurgents and initiating a process of dialogue, about three to four times and it was sabotaged by those who were benefitting from the bloodshed and I think the unfolding events in the country clearly shows to all Nigerians that there were people who see that seven years of bloodshed, of mass murder, of genocide as an opportunity for them to amass wealth.
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"It is not possible to say that an insurgent group or people not more than two to three thousand have proved so difficult for a nation of 175 million people to crush.
"A nation like ours with a reputable armed forces and have performed creditably well in peace keeping missions in Liberia and sierra Leone and Congo and other countries of the world.
"It was so clear that some see it as an opportunity, like the Chinese saying, some people see crisis as a struggle, others see it as an opportunity.
"That is why it dragged on for so long, but I hope with the present administration, at least progress has been made in terms of degrading the capacity and ability of Boko Haram to take up territories."
Only yesterday, Nigeria's Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt-Gen Tukur Buratai secretly met with elders in Borno state.
He vowed to ensure that all the Chibok girls are rescued along with all other hostages held by the Boko Haram terrorists, with the freedom of the school girls to be treated as top priority.
The COAS also declared that the war against Boko Haram Terrorists (BHT) in the northeast has now entered into the mop-up phase.
Source: Legit.ng
