The #BringBackOurGirls (#BBOG) advocacy group has said that the teenager bomber who claimed to be one of the Chibok girls when she was apprehended in Cameroon is a victim despite the situation.
The group said that the claim by the young girl should re-awaken the Federal Government on the need to speedily rescue the Chibok girls who will soon be celebrating two years in captivity.
#BBOG said that the arrest of the girl means that the government now has a means of credible intelligence as to the location of the other girls and the need to rescue them.
The group responded to the arrest in a press statement signed by its leaders, Aisha Yesufu, Oby Ezekwesili and Hadiza Bala-Usman.
“We received news yesterday Friday 25 March, of an arrested girl-child suicide bomber in Cameroon who identified herself as one of our abducted Chibok girls.
“We are presently unable to respond to this news conclusively until we have facts from the Nigerian government; from whom we requested and have eagerly been awaiting official information on the matter.
“In the interim however, our thoughts are as follows:
“The claim by the young woman that she is a Chibok girl should reawaken the Nigerian government to the zeal and commitment necessary for ensuring that they are rescued and brought back;
“This development suggests that we now have a possible source of credible intelligence as to what transpired, where the others are, and other leads required to facilitate their rescue.
“Regardless of whether she is one of our Chibok girls or not, our thoughts and sentiments remain the same:
“Using children, girls who should be in school (or any humans at all) as suicide bombers is not only tragic and cruel, it is completely reprehensible and we denounce it;
“These children suicide bomber are themselves victims, and must be seen and treated as such;
“We all must hasten to free all those in captivity. For as long as they are with the monsters, we all are ourselves unsafe and equally in captivity;
“A few weeks ago, a girl suicide bomber did not detonate her device at an IDP camp because she knew her family was most likely in that camp, and she could not kill them. It is important to send out messages that counter the programming of the terrorists. This may help in empowering these victims from detonating the explosives and accessing help;
“This particular experience highlights the importance of building not only a regional coalition among neighbouring countries to counter terror, but a global one.
“The Nigerian government as a matter of urgency, needs to swiftly act to ascertain the facts of this matter and make them public. It is getting to 24 hours since the news broke. We need to know her name and identity, her parents’ names, where she is from, possibly extract DNA samples for quick testing and matching, etc.
“This should be a wakeup call to the Nigerian government to adopt and utilise our citizens-developed tool the Verification, Authentication, and Reunification System (VARS) designed by our movement for such scenarios as these. This tool was accepted by the federal government on 8 July 2015 during our meeting with the president, but has not been deployed.
“Likewise, the Missing Persons Register which would have been useful in tracking this young victim in order to commence her rehabilitation, reunification, and reintegration process with her family and community,” the group stated. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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Too quick to conclude. First wait for investigation and report by the appropriate authority.
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