Today April 14 marks the 6th year since the abduction of the Chibok school girls by members of the Boko Haram sect.
The sect members stormed the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno state and abducted 276 of them. 57 of them managed to escape when the truck used to convey them broke down. In October 2016, 21 of the girls were freed; and in May 2017, another batch of 82 were released from captivity. 13 of the girls are presumed dead while 112 of the girls are still in captivity.
In a statement released by his media aide, Garba Shehu, President Buhari vowed never to forget the remaining girls as his government will do everything it can to ensure they are rescued alive.
He said “The issue of the Chibok girls is not a forgotten issue. We cannot go to sleep over this matter. We are optimistic that ongoing efforts will yield something positive. Unfortunately, an ongoing crisis within the Boko Haram leadership, which has led to factions and breakaway groups, brought a number of unforeseen challenges to the process of negotiating with the militants for the young women’s release. In the past few years, our armed forces have recorded huge successes in the battle against Boko Haram, but they have also been careful to ensure that as few civilian lives as possible were lost in the process. We would rather the young women still in captivity were freed alive”