Group set up taskforce to go to Sambissa Forest to secure the release of Chibok girls

A United Kingdom-based group, SecurityinAfrica, has said it is setting up a taskforce to go to Sambissa Forest to secure the release of the more than 200 abducted Chibok schoolgirls.

The founder of the group, Ben Oguntala, said in an interview with our correspondent via the Internet, “We have been carrying out some research based on the evidence provided and aim to carry out a multifaceted and holistic approach to the search on an unprecedented scale. With the use of state-of-the-art technology, we will be mapping out the entire landscape of the key areas. For example, digitising the Sambissa Forest and create a quadrant system.


“We will follow an elimination process of where the girls are not, thereby looking to use technology to provide evidence of actual sighting of the girls.”

She added, “We will be running press briefings throughout the operation and unlike how the Nigerian Army handled the public relations aspect of the kidnapping, when we find any evidence, we will be providing the actual concrete evidence to back it up. We intend to share our intelligence data in order to assist law enforcement agencies that are interested in taking it further.”

Oguntala told newsmen his organisation had to set up the task force because the Nigerian government and its security agencies had failed to secure the release of the schoolgirls.

“The fact that Boko Haram seems to be firing at will in Nigeria and acting with impunity seems the Federal Government has abandoned the efforts for finding the girls. As a result, we are taking matters into our own hands and planning to raise over £5m and reporting directly to the parents (of the abducted girls).

“We cannot accept that these girls have simply vanished and we cannot accept that the Nigerian Army cannot do anything about it. As defence and security professionals, we cannot sit back and let terrorism tear apart Nigeria,” he said.

Oguntala stated further that the task force would be drawn from top anti-kidnapping experts from Europe and Latin America including Colombia.