The leadership of the #BringBackOurGirls Movement has debunked insinuations that their campaigns to ensure the freedom of the abducted female students of the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State was undermining the Nigeria’s military authorities to free the 273 girls.
Rather, they claimed in a statement signed by the former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, Hadixa Bala Usman and Jibrin Ibrahim, that their campaigns should be seen as complimentary towards ensuring freedom to the abducted girls as they have no political, religious, ethnic or regional agenda.
According to the statement, the Coalition of Civil Society Groups claimed that the Defence Headquarters DHQ said that their campaigns projected the Nigerian Military in bad light and further heated-up the polity. The DHQ further claimed that the civil society groups were trying to drag the military into politics.
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The Bring Back Our Girls Campaigners said, “The statement alleges that we distorted our report on the meeting ostensibly to pitch public opinion against the Armed Forces and to project the Nigerian Military in bad light and further heat-up the polity. The release further claimed that they were trying to drag the military into politics.
“We wish to state unequivocally that our objectives were and remain to engage the military constructively to seek pathways towards achieving the collective objective of bringing back our girls.
“The key points we summarised from the presentation of the military are as follows: “Troops are effectively deployed on the ground, are making steady progress in the efforts to rescue the girls and the results of their efforts will soon become apparent, the operation is difficult and delicate and to avoid providing vital information to the enemy, they have been discrete about their activities and intelligence is a vital part of asymmetrical warfare and all citizens should commit to feeding accurate and useful information to our security agencies”, Oby Ezekwesili, Hadixa Bala Usman and Jibrin Ibrahim said.
Restating their agenda, the campaigners said, “We are a single issue coalition without any political, religious, ethnic or regional dimensions to our struggle. Far from seeking to undermine the efforts of the military, we are determined to enhance it and make it more robust and effective.
“Our concerns about the lack of results so far were aimed at motivating the military to more effective action. Immediately after the meeting, we prepared and circulated a report of the discussions which is clearly intended to promote a common understanding of the problems and promote more effective action.
“We appeal to the military high command to see our campaign as one that is motivated by the humanist concern of saving the girls from their kidnappers”.
The group reiterated the sole focus and aim of their campaign, which it said “is to achieve the safe return of the abducted girls; not to malign the Federal Government or undermine the Military in anyway. We hereby restate our resolve to support the Military in its efforts to achieve the desired result”
Referring to the outcome of their meeting with the DHQ, the statement said that they expressed concern over the fact that three weeks after the abduction, there was still no substantive newsfeed or public evidence on what was being done to rescue the girls.
