Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has warned the Federal Government against celebrating the release of abducted schoolgirls in Kebbi State.
According to Atiku, the release of the school children should not be presented as an achievement but as evidence of Nigeria’s worsening security environment.
Speaking in a statement issued by his media office on Wednesday, Atiku said the return of the schoolgirls was “not a trophy moment” but “a damning reminder that terrorists now operate freely, negotiate openly, and dictate terms while this administration issues press statements to save face.”
Atiku’s statement was a response to comments made by Presidential Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, during an interview on Arise News TV on Monday where he said the Department of State Services and the military knew the whereabouts of kidnappers and terrorists in real time and contacted them to secure the girls’ release without paying ransom.
Onanuga further said, “The security people, they know all the bandits that are operating in that axis. They know them. They know where they operate.
“Our people are living around where they operate. So you can’t just go there. They need to be very careful that in the course of chasing these bandits, they don’t go and bomb innocent Nigerians,” he had stated.
However, Atiku described the presidency’s explanation as “a shameful attempt to whitewash a national tragedy and dress up government incompetence as heroism.”
He said, “If, as Onanuga claims, the DSS and the military could ‘track’ the kidnappers in real time and ‘made contact’ with them, then the question is simple: Why were these criminals not arrested, neutralised, or dismantled on the spot?
“Why is the government boasting about talking to terrorists instead of eliminating them? Why is kidnapping now reduced to a routine phone call between criminals and state officials?” the former vice president asked.
He added that the administration’s explanation suggests that “terrorists and bandits have become an alternative government, negotiating, collecting ransom, and walking away untouched, while the presidency celebrates their compliance.”
“No serious nation applauds itself for negotiating with terrorists it claims to have under surveillance. No responsible government congratulates itself for allowing abductors to walk back into the forests to kidnap again,” Atiku said.
The girls were abducted on November 17, when armed assailants stormed the Government Girls’ Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State, killing one staff member and kidnapping 25 students from their dormitory.
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