EZEKWESILI SLAMS FG FOR USING SAME APPROACH IN RESCUE OF ABDUCTED CHIBOK GIRLS

The Bring Back Our Girls (BBoG), an advocacy group, on Thursday advised the Federal Government to adopt the new instrument of Verification, Authentication and Reunification System (VARS) to rescue missing citizens.

Dr Oby Ezekwesili, the Co-Chairperson of the group, gave the advice while commemorating what they described as two years of sad abduction of the Chibok school girls in Abuja.

According to her, VARS will serve as a baseline for instituting an enduring and dignifying programme that treats rescued citizens as assets to the country.

“We need to have a good system to take adequate care of those that are rescued; we need to have a mechanism to have missing persons registered and record of event.

“We persist in encouraging our government to develop an effective system, mechanism and framework for handling rescued citizens with dignity.

“The incredible wealth of information that victims of terrorism can offer our security forces is being lost in the current undefined and ineffective approach,’’ she said.

However, Ezekwesili applauded the Nigeria military which had in the last one year recorded commendable feats in the counter-terrorism war.

She said that hope had been renewed by the recent release of a “proof of life video” of some of the abducted girls identified by some of their parents.

Ezekwesili explained that the symbolism of the march to the gates of the State House was to reiterate that the rescue of the Chibok girls, other victims of terrorism, resolving the humanitarian crises in the North East of our country must be a priority.

She said other reasons are tackling the feuds between farmers and pastoralists in parts of the country and tackling the problem of “endangered education” of children in IDPs’ camps nationwide.

“We have also advocated for urgent actions by our government and its local and international partners to address the monumental humanitarian crises in the North East and begin to restore peace in destroyed communities.

“Our government must lead a well-coordinated and results-focused “SWAT” search and rescue team that mobilises intelligence assets available in the world to rescue our Chibok girls and all other citizens in the den of terrorists,’’ Ezekwesili said.

She also urged the federal and Borno State Governments to take immediate steps to restore the Government Secondary School, Chibok.