A former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has expressed shock over the abduction of no fewer than 60 girls from Kummabza in Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State by suspected gunmen.
The victims reportedly are aged between three and 12.
Their abduction is coming 70 days after Boko Haram members invaded Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State and forcibly took away over 250 female pupils.
Flaying the latest abduction, Ezekwesili said the development was worrisome as President Goodluck Jonathan had yet to make the rescue of the hitherto kidnapped Chibok girls a priority.
She lamented on Twitter the precarious state of the victims, declaring that justice for the poor in Nigeria was “always non-existent.”
Ezekwesili warned that with the series of events, which she described as unfortunate playing out, Nigeria under the superintendence of the President was gradually on the path of destruction.
Urging the political leaders to act fast, Ezekwesili, also a former World Bank Vice-President, noted that the Federal Government had again failed the 60 youngsters whom she described as “Borno baby girls.”
Ezekwesili said, “We failed our teenage Chibok girls 71 days on and with the report of the fresh 60 Borno girls, we have failed our toddlers, too. How did they fail to comprehend that our cry to our President and Federal Government to bring back our girls was to deter our common enemies from ever trying again?
“We are tired of abnormal acceptance of failure that makes us think it is ‘political’ to demand that our resources and institutions deliver results. We are tired of a wicked elite class that lives in a bubble while the nation that gave us so much gradually becomes a massive grave yard.”
She, therefore, urged the Federal Government not to live in denial of the latest abduction, but to spring into action by activating an emergency rescue operation for the victims.
“Can our Federal Government demonstrate what we learnt from failure of slow response to the abduction of Chibok girls by swiftly going for the 60 Borno baby girls?” she asked.
Another mother and member of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign group, Aisha Yesufu, urged the Federal Government to act fast over the renewed kidnapping of young girls.
“How can one abduct a three-year-old? What do you do with a three-year-old? With all these going on, yet our leaders live in denial. The insurgency has consumed us. We live in fear. Is that life? How much can the soul take before it shuts down? How painful? The tears no longer flow,” she wrote on her Twitter page. Punch
