Rescuing the Chibok girls and Leah Sharibu remains a top national priority – Federal Government
Rescuing the Chibok girls and Leah Sharibu remains a top national priority – Federal Government
The Federal Government has reaffirmed its dedication to securing the release of the remaining Chibok schoolgirls and Leah Sharibu, assuring Nigerians that the abducted girls have not been forgotten, even after several years.
On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram abducted 276 girls from Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State. Eleven years later, 87 of them are still believed to be held in captivity.
Similarly, Leah Sharibu was one of 110 schoolgirls abducted on February 19, 2018, by fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) at the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College in Dapchi, Yobe State.
While others were released, Leah, the only Christian among them, remains in captivity.
Speaking during a multi-agency meeting on anti-kidnapping, organised in collaboration with the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency in Abuja, on Tuesday, the National Coordinator of the National Counter Terrorism Centre, Maj Gen Adamu Laka, stated that while some of the kidnapped girls had been rescued over the years, efforts to free the remaining ones had not relented.
He said, “Since when they were kidnapped, those who were rescued were not just rescued one time; It was a gradual process. Negotiations were conducted to get them out. Operations were conducted.
Luckily, at the beginning of that, towards the year after they were kidnapped, I was in the theatre, and I know what the military and intelligence agencies put in to rescue the initial set of the Chibok girls.
“We haven’t given up hope on them; some of them were married to some of the insurgents. Some have come out. But let our focus not only be on the Chibok girls.
“There are others that have been kidnapped – aid workers, Nigerian aid workers who were kidnapped. We’ve rescued some that are working for UNICEF.”
Laka noted that the silence in the media did not equate to inaction or indifference from the government.
He said, “We’ve rescued some that are working for UNHCR and IOM and so on. So, we haven’t relented on our efforts.
“There is the issue of this lady, Leah Shaibu. We are not always talking about it. It doesn’t mean we don’t care. It doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten about them. We are still on it. Our prayer is that the whole 87 or 80 plus that are left will be rescued by God’s grace.”
Laka also provided updates on the activities of the Multi-Agency Anti-Kidnap Fusion Cell, domiciled at the National Counterterrorism Centre, which was commissioned by the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, on December 19, 2024.
He explained that since its establishment, the centre has functioned as a key hub for intelligence sharing and coordination, helping military and law enforcement agencies across the country respond more effectively to kidnapping cases.
To enhance its operations, he said the centre introduced a state-level expansion programme, which involves deploying anti-kidnap liaison officers from the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Services to all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
“The main goal of the initiative is to bridge the gap between national coordination and state-level response,” he stated.
He added that the effort is designed to create direct operational connections and ensure that real-time intelligence and local insights from field commands guide strategic decisions at the national level.
