Chibok girls return may take years- Minister of Defense

Assertion from Nigeria’s defence minister, Mansur Ali, suggested that the return of all the Chibok girls kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists, may take years to accomplish.The dreaded Boko Haram terrorists took some 276 students from Government Girls’ Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, on April 14, 2014. Since then, no fewer than 195 of the girls are still missing.The insurgency caused by the terrorists has led to the death of about 100,000 people since 2009, when it started.Mr Ali, while commenting on the issue on VOA’s Hausa service, watched in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, Tuesday, said the military is resolute on recovering the girls and also searching the hideouts of the terror group in the Sambisa forest, covering a large area in three states.He said the difficulty faced with in finding the girls, after recovering most territory earlier held by the terror group is similar to the scenario in Afghanistan, where Osama Bin Laden’s whereabouts was not known.“It took the U.S. up to seven, eight, up to 10 years before they could get to bin Laden.” “We are continuing our campaign in the Sambisa Forest in all its nooks and corners.”Mr. Ali remark was in response to demands by activists for the federal government to do more to set the girls free, as they marked the third anniversary of the girls’ abduction.In 2014, Boko Haram took control of around 14 local governments in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe but have since lost most of them to the government, assuring that the terror group no longer hold any territory.The present challenge of recovering the girls is discrediting the military victory in the war against terrorism.An Islamic cleric, Nuru Khalid, member of the influential Interfaith group, while speaking on VOA, remarked that such situation means Boko Haram has the victory at the government’s expense.“We can never allow the terrorists to win the war. If they got [away] free with those girls, then they have relatively won the war,” he remarked.Same way, a human rights lawyer, Bulama Bukar, has offered that the government needs to check on the psychological trauma the families of the missing girls are possibly passing through.“Married women have been made single again; kids have been orphaned; homeowners are without shelter; Nigerians have been turned into refugees in their own homeland,” he lamented.However, President Buhari, while delivering his speech to commemorate three years abduction of the Chibok girls, has promised his administration effort to secure the freedom of the girls.