A civil society group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has raised eye brow over the released of another batch of 82 Chibok schoolgirls by the Boko Haram terrorist organisation.
HURIWA in a statement signed jointly by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, said: “The recent claim of the release by so-called vanquished Boko Haram terrorists of 82 hitherto kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls and the constant release from detention of detained Boko Haram terror suspects by the military authorities without the office of the Federal Attorney General subjecting them to criminal prosecution over the four year-long bombing campaign, during which they slaughtered over 30,000 innocent Nigerians are clear evidences that there are more to the whole Boko Haram scenarios than meets the eye.”
HURIWA said it has for the umpteenth time advocated a United Nations-led independent forensic investigation of the remote and immediate circumstances that gave rise to the formation, advancement, sophistication and the sources of weapons of Boko Haram terrorists in the North East of Nigeria.
The rights group said: “The suspicious circumstances of the emergence of these 82 hostages after the Nigerian government claimed that Sambisa Forest has been conquered and that the entire Sambisa Forest has been combed without any trace of either the hostages or Boko Haram terrorists, tells a lot and therefore demands forensic investigation to determine where exactly these girls were hidden and who were actually the hostage takers.”
The group expressed shock that these female students of Chibok school reportedly kidnapped by armed Boko Haram over three years ago were released about the same time the leader of the terrorists was reportedly injured by the Nigeria Air Force during a counter insurgency combat mission.
“There are critical questions that an investigative panel must ask about the entire drama of the Boko Haram terrorists. Nigerians must be told by an entirely independent and non-partisan panel of forensic crime analysts the exact circumstances that led to the explosion of the Boko Haram terror campaign; we also need to be told how these Chibok girls who were hitherto married off and therefore couldn’t be seen in the Sambisa Forests now suddenly emerged after what is called a prisoners swap. Who are the Boko Haran terrorists freed in exchange for the 82 Chibok girls? There is the need to verify all these issues so as to disabuse the minds of most Nigerians who see this whole Boko Haram terror scenario as political gambits by the North to scheme the Southern minorities out of the juicy office of the President of Nigeria. We need to be able to arrive at a knowledgeable finding on these Boko Haram terrorists so as to appropriately respond in the future, should such unfortunate event reoccur.”