The army’s Deputy Chief of Policy and Plans, Maj. Gen. Attahiru Ibrahim, stated this on a programme aired on NTA, noting that Sharibu and the remaining Chibok schoolgirls would be reunited with their family members “very soon.”
Ibrahim, who was also a former Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, said efforts were ongoing and he was optimistic that the efforts would produce the captives from the terrorists’ den.
Two civil societies, the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights and the Campaign for Democracy, had on Tuesday tackled President Muhammadu Buhari over his silence on Leah Sharibu and the remaining Chibok schoolgirls in his Democracy Day broadcast.
The CDHR President, Malachy Ugwummadu, had said, “The government should have told us what steps it is taking to ensure her (Sharibu) release. The President should have accorded her that recognition. The question is that; how did the security agencies let down the guard so low that we are now celebrating the release of over 100 Dapchi schoolgirls as an achievement? This should not have happened in the first place.”
Ibrahim said, “We are going to have them back. I can assure you about that. There are a whole lot of non-kinetic operations that are ongoing. The government is also making tremendous efforts on not only Leah Sharibu, but other Chibok girls. Very soon, they will be joining their families. I am very optimistic about that.”
Speaking on the farmers and herdsmen’s clashes on the programme, the Nigerian Air Force said it had established more response units in the troubled states of Nasarawa, Benue and Taraba to contain the situation.
