Fred Itua, Abuja
Senate, yesterday, called on the Federal Government to expedite action for the release of Leah Sharibu, the remaining student of Science Secondary School Dapchi , Yobe State still in Boko Haram captivity since February 2018.
A splinter Boko Haram group, had, February 19, 2018, abducted 115 girls from the school, but released 109 a month after, claiming that five out of the abducted girls died in captivity, while Leah was held back for refusing to renounce her Christian faith.
Although governments at the federal and state levels promised Leah parents that her release from captivity would be done by all means possible, 13 months after, she is still in captivity.
Drawing the attention of the senate to Leah’s plight, through a Point of Order, senator Shehu Sani, said there is the need to urge the Federal to expedite action on whatever means possible; in getting the girl rescued.
Sani, who spoke on Order 43, under Personal Explanation said: “Fourteen months of Leah Sharibu in the captivity of Boko Haram, and five years of the yet-to-be released Chibok girls calls for national concern and urgent need by relevant authorities to do all within their powers in getting them released .
“What perhaps may be the most important strategy to be adopted in getting Leah and others out of captivity, is the option of dialogue with the their abductors .
“It has worked in so many other places where similar abductions took place like Afghanistan, Pakistan, among others, terrorised by the Talibans.
“Although government cannot be said not to have taken actions in getting Leah and others released, but, there is need for it to redouble and expedite actions in that direction; for parents and relatives of the abductees be freed from psychological trauma they must have been facing and for the abductees to know that they have a country that cares for them.”
Being a matter raised under self explanation, Sani’s motion was not put to debate by other senators but, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, in his remarks, said all efforts must be made by the federal government in getting Leah and others released.