An NGO, ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) has urged the Federal Government to continue to use negotiations as a means to release the remaining abducted Chibok and Dapchi girls.
The Country Director of AAN, Mrs Ene Obi, gave the advice yesterday, in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.
‘‘This is the 4th anniversary of the abduction of the girls and we are still calling on Nigerian government to do its best to bring back these girls.
‘‘It is unfortunate that in these modern times, when people are moving forward, you can just go into a community and you take, just scoop out children and go with them.
‘‘It is so barbaric, but at the end of everything, at the end of every war, it is negotiation that brings it to a close.
‘‘We cannot continue like this, we need those girls back, and then the Dapchi children, I do not know how, what kind of negotiation they went into that the girls came back.
‘‘But we still have a girl who is left behind; it is not good for Nigeria, so we hope that the government will do more, if they have to get to the negotiation table to dialogue.
‘‘So, government needs to get its team back, yes these people are violators, but they are children of Nigeria.
‘‘So let them get back to the negotiation table that is what we are asking the government to do.’’
She said that the government need to do more to ensure the release of the remaining kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls.
Obi said failure to rescue the remaining girls from their abductors could increase vulnerability of the Nigerian child.
She advised governments at all levels to prioritise security of lives through the provision of safe spaces for schools.
Obi advocated girl child enrolment into schools and the retention and protection of children from all forms of violence.
Action Aid Nigeria works with communities to provide safe spaces for girls and support governments to prioritise Charter of Rights to Education, which encourages girls’ enrolment, retention and school completion.