In a statement issued in
Abuja on Monday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, said it is patently insensitive for any individual or
organisation to seek to douse, on the altar of politics, the universal
joy that has greeted the release of the 82 girls – the highest number so
far freed since their unfortunate abduction under the watch of the PDP
over three years ago.
He said from the
ill-advised statement, it is clear that the PDP, whose incompetence and
cluelessness precipitated the Chibok girls crisis in the first instance,
is not wishing and praying for it to end with the safe return of the
abducted girls.
”In his inaugural
address, President Muhammadu Buhari said the administration cannot claim
to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls. He also
said this government WILL DO ALL IT CAN to rescue them alive.
”If that includes
swapping some Boko Haram elements for the girls, so what? Will the PDP
rather have the girls stay in perpetual captivity, just to prove a
ludicrous point? Didn’t superpower United States engage in negotiations
with the Taliban that led to the exchange of five Taliban fighters for
US Army Sgt Bowe Bergdahl in 2014? Didn’t Israel release 1,027
Palestinian prisoners in exchange for one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit,
in 2011?
”A lot of factors come
into play when a nation has to decide whether or not to engage in
prisoner/hostage swap. None, however, trounces the sanctity attached to
human life and the consideration for the pains of the loved ones of
those involved,” Alhaji Mohammed said.
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