Godson Irikefe
May 29, 2015 – President Muhammadu Buhari today promised that his government will rescue over 200 girls kidnapped from Girls Secondary School, Chibok over one year ago.
Buhari made the promise at the inauguration of his government in Abuja.
The President acknowledged that progress has been made in recent weeks by security forces but that victory cannot be achieved by basing the Command and Control Centre in Abuja.
“The command centre will be relocated to Maiduguri and remain until Boko Haram is completely subdued”, he said adding that government cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by insurgents.
“This government will do all it can to rescue them alive”, he said, stressing that Boko Haram is a typical example of small fires causing large fires.
He alluded to the extra-judicial killing of leader of the Boko Haram sect, Muhammed Yusuf, stressing that since then through official bungling, negligence, complacency or collusion, Boko Haram became a terrifying force taking tens of thousands of lives and capturing several towns and villages covering swathes of Nigerian sovereign territory.
According to him, Boko Haram is a mindless, godless group who are far away from Islam as one can think of. He said that once the group is subdued, government would commission a sociological study to determine its origins, remote and immediate causes of the movement, its sponsors, the international connections to ensure that measures are taken to prevent a recurrence of the evil.
He said the Armed Forces will be fully charged with prosecuting the fight against Boko haram.
“We shall overhaul the rules of engagement to avoid human rights violations in operations. We shall improve operational and legal mechanisms so that disciplinary steps are taken against proven human right violations by the Armed Forces.
“Boko Haram is not only the security issue bedeviling our country. The spate of kidnappings, armed robberies, herdsmen/farmers clashes, cattle rustlings all help to add to the general air of insecurity in our land.
“We are going to erect and maintain an efficient, disciplined people – friendly and well – compensated security forces within an over – all security architecture”, he said.
