Saturday, April 19, 2014

School Girls Abduction: Nigerian Army Must Apologize
Nigerian school girls were kidnapped in the north of the West African country.
Saturday, 19 April 2014 19:57 Written by Kamal Tayo Oropo
Nigerian Guardian

Lagos State University (LASU) don and Director of Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), Professor Ishaq Akintola, has called on the military authority to go beyond retraction and formally apologise to Nigerians over its Chibok secondary school girls abduction goof.

   The Nigerian Army had on Wednesday, April 16, 2014 claimed that it had rescued 107 out of the 129 students from Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State abducted by group suspected to Boko Haram sect. But to the dismay of many Nigerians, the school principal, Mrs. Asabe Kwambura, denied the report of such rescue operation. Officials of the Borno State Government also corroborated the denial. An embarrassed military authority quickly retracted its story the following day, Thursday, April 17, 2014.

   Stressing that it is only in Nigeria that such confusion is condoned, Akintola lamented that the abduction of the girls in their school is a tremendous setback for girl-child education, adding that the situation should have been treated with more seriousness and high level of professionalism.

   In a statement, yesterday, Akintola, on behalf of MURIC drew the attention of Nigerians to the misery and despair of parents of the unfortunate girls.

  “Indeed all Nigerians have shown deep concern over this ugly incident. The huge national psychological trauma is immeasurable. Therefore nobody should trivialize the unprofessional behaviour of the Nigerian military.

    “The army has goofed this time around and it should apologise to Nigerians. This is a democracy and the citizens have the right not only to demand performance, but also to insist on true reportage.

It is clear from what happened that there was glaring disconnect between the field and army control room. This is a serious malady. The military is wobbling and fumbling. This is why innocent civilians continue to die everyday in this Boko Haram saga,” he said.
 
We charge the Defence Committees of the National Assembly to perform their oversight function in this matter without delays.

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