The Northern Christian Youth Professionals (NCYP), a coalition of professionals from the 19 Northern states and Abuja, has appealed to the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to hasten the release of the remaining Chibok girls under Boko Haram’s captivity.
Daily Trust Saturday reports that 98 of the 276 students kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists from Government Girls Secondary School Chibok, Borno State, are still in captivity, nine years after their abduction.
The Chibok schoolgirls were abducted from their school on April 14, 2014.
The incident sparked local and international outrage with leaders and activists putting enormous pressure on the Nigerian government to rescue the girls while offering intelligence support.
In a statement on Friday in commemoration of the 9th year since the abduction of the schoolgirls, chairman of NCYP, Isaac Abrak, while commending President Muhammadu Buhari for securing the release of some of the girls, also called on the incoming government to take decisive actions to reunite those left with their families.
“We also urge the incoming government to strengthen security in schools, particularly in Northern Nigeria, to prevent the continued abduction of school children. The recent abduction of 10 school children in Awon community, Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State on April 4 is a sad reminder that this problem is still with us,” he said.
He said protecting schools from terrorism will encourage education in the region, which will ultimately empower children and youths to reject the falsehoods that foster terrorism in the country, and naturally weaken and eventually defeat Boko Haram and other forms of terror in the land.
