At last, fact-finding committee visits Chibok

The members of the Presidential Fact-finding Committee on the Abducted Chibok Schoolgirls on Thursday finally visited Chibok, Borno State, in continuation of their investigation into the April 14 abduction.


The committee’s spokesman, Kingsley Osadolor, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja.

The committee had on Sunday left Maiduguri for Abuja after spending eight days in the troubled state without visiting Chibok.

Osadolor said the committee members were received at Chibok by the Borno State Commissioner for Education, Musa Kubo, Chairman of Chibok Local Government, Bana Lawan, five district heads of the surrounding communities, Chairman of the Parent Teachers Association of the affected school, the principal and parents of the abducted girls.

Some of the students, who escaped from the insurgents, were also said to be on hand to meet with the committee members.

The statement read, “Members of the committee visited the burnt-out structures of Government Secondary School, where the girls were abducted. The receiving party conducted members of the committee round the grounds of the school.

“The principal, vice principals, matrons of the hostels, as well as security guards and cooks were earlier debriefed by the committee in Maiduguri.

“The committee later held an interactive session with the Chibok communities on the school premises. At the meeting, Chairman of the Fact-finding Committee, Brig.-Gen. Ibrahim Sabo (retd.), who spoke with misty eyes, said the committee came, first, to sympathise with the parents and other community members over the havoc of the insurgents.

“He assured the people of President Goodluck Jonathan’s concern about the fate of the abducted students, saying that the President was having sleepless nights.”

Sabo was also quoted as urging the people to be calm and patient because government was adopting a multi-faceted approach to resolve the abduction saga.

“As we gather here today to see you wailing, by the grace of God, we will also gather here to dance and rejoice with you when the girls regain their freedom,” he was further quoted as telling the parents.

Osadolor added that the Chairman of the local government, praised the committee for visiting and bringing messages of succour and hope to members of the communities.

He said the council boss berated those who had claimed that the mass abduction was a political scam.

“The greatest fact your committee can find are the biological parents of some of the students who were abducted,” he said.

The Commissioner for Education, Kubo, also expressed happiness over the visit by the committee.

He urged members of the fact-finding committee to convey to President Jonathan the people’s hope and belief that the girls would be found and reunited with their families.

Others who spoke at the meeting, according to the statement, included Rev. Enoch Mark, whose two daughters are among the schoolgirls still unaccounted for.

Mark reportedly frowned at what he called the politicisation of the abduction, pointing out that the matter was also not religious because the families affected were adherents of the country’s major faiths.

The committee has since returned to Abuja.