ow to find Chibok girls, by presidential panel
by Our Reporter, July 18, 2016 at 12:00 am in
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The Presidential Fact-Finding Committee on the
abducted female students of Government
Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State has asked
the Federal Government to take advantage of
foreign support, backed with hi-tech equipment, to
locate the abducted girls and rescue them.
It called for the beefing up of arms and ammunition
of the military as well as the strengthening of
security agencies in the theatre of operation.
The committee made the recommendations in its
50-page report submitted to the government,
according to Premium Times.
The 27-member panel chaired by Ibrahim Sabo, a
retired brigadier general, was inaugurated by
former President Goodluck Jonathan on May 6,
2014, to, among other things, find out the
circumstances leading to the abduction of the 276
female students of the Government Secondary
School, Chibok, Borno State on April 14, 2014 by
Boko Haram terrorists.
The establishment of the committee followed
claims and counterclaims about the circumstances
and the actual number of students abducted by the
terrorists.
The panel submitted its report to then President
Jonathan, but its details were never made public.
In the report, the committee, which sat for five
weeks, said altogether 276 students out of the 395
female students that registered for the WAEC
examination were abducted by the terrorists.
It further stated that while 57 of the students
escaped from the insurgents after the abduction,
the remaining 219 were unaccounted for.
It said five of the 57 students that escaped were
found in the bushes near Damboa.
It said at the time the girls were abducted, the
school was relying on extant security arrangement
and had only two guards while there was no
electricity because its only generator had broken
down.
The panel said intelligence available to it at the
time it was submitting its report to government
showed that the girls were in different camps in
and around Sambisa Forest, which covers an area
of 60,000 square kilometres with scrubby semi
desert tangle of low trees and bushes in the corner
of the Northeast zone.
“The abducted girls have been split into groups
under the watch of separate syndicates as
confirmed from various sightings of the insurgents
at different locations,” it said.
“Another batch of girls is believed to have been
transported by canoe to an Island around the Lake
Chad.
“Insurgent attacks on communities and markets
situated in Hyuum, Askira Uba LGA, Klakaisa and
Sha’awa villages of Damboa LGA in search of food
and other supplies, indicate that some of the girls
could be within the area.”
The committee suggested two ways of rescuing the
girls, namely negotiation and military operation.
It explained that the negotiation initiative would
require dialogue with hostage-takers through
trusted intermediaries and conflict mediators. The
military option would involve the deployment of
counter-terrorism and/or hostage rescue team,
which would undertake a surgical strike storming
the locations where the hostages are held.
It listed the advantages and disadvantages of the
two options.
The panel told the government that in determining
which option to adopt, the advantages and
disadvantages of each approach should be
carefully examined in the context of the hostage
crisis and new developments.
“The negotiation initiative is inclusive while the
military option is exclusive to the team that would
be involved in the rescue operation,” the
Committee said.
Citing the successful release of the 52 U.S.
officials, who were held hostages for 444 days at
the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran from 1979 to
1981, the committee listed the advantages of the
negotiation approach to include a greater
likelihood of rescuing the girls alive and safe from
harm and the provision of an opening to broader
discussions and understanding that would
eventually lead to a peace agreement.
On the other hand, the committee said by adopting
the military option, Nigeria would have, among
others, complied with the internationally accepted
norms of non-negotiation with terrorists; boost
morale within the country and among the security
agencies; and send a strong message to the
insurgents that the government was not weak.
It, however, noted that the constraints of the option
were insufficient number of mobilised troops;
inadequate combat equipment (power, mobility and
communication); porous/unmanned borders with
Cameroun, Chad and Niger Republics, which
provide the insurgents the advantage of safe haven,
access to mercenaries and weapons; and time
constraints in the procurement process for combat
equipment.
Stating that most of the people it interacted with
during its fact-finding work did not consider the
military option advisable “in order to protect the
abducted girls,” the committee said should the
government decide to adopt the approach, a
thorough assessment of the strength and capability
of the military and the Boko Haram insurgents
must be undertaken.
It suggested that the assessment of the military
should be in the areas of personnel, equipment, the
terrain, logistics and state of preparedness of the
rescue team at the conflict site and in geographical
location for possible reinforcement.
For the insurgents, it said, “there should be an
appreciation of their supply route, personnel, fire
power, camouflage tactics and guerrilla war
strategy”.
The committee said from its findings the
insurgents are armed with sophisticated military
hardware such as Armoured Personnel Carriers
(APCs), Anti-Aircraft (AA) guns, Rocket Propelled
Grenades (RPGs), among other weapons.
It said: “The sophistication of their equipment has
emboldened the insurgents leading to an increase
in the frequency and intensity of their attacks. The
Nigerian military and other security agencies
should be provided with additional and superior
weapons to counter the insurgents.”
The committee also recommended that the military
should review its rules of engagement to
appropriately counter the insurgents.
It asked the government to also co-opt the Youth
Volunteer Group, otherwise known as Civilian JTF
and the Shuwa tribe into the search and rescue of
