During an interview with Channels TV Sunrise programme
yesterday, Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio expressed his
reservations about the kidnapped
school girls. He wondered why no gun was fired during the kidnap, and
why it took Boko Haram two weeks to take responsibility for the
kidnapping and also why the statements made by the sect leader
tallied with what local media had been reporting for weeks. He probably
also has doubts, but as a governor, he was careful with his words. Some
of what he said below...
"I don't have the details
but there are a lot of mysteries surrounding this situation. Two hundred
and thirty something girls, for you to take them out of the school, you
need a
lot of vehicles. I believe if they were walking, definitely it would
have been possible for at least one person to have seen these
girls. I think there is a regime of fear around those areas where these
things are prevalent. Its almost like a conspiracy of silence where
nobody is ready to talk because I can't imagine maybe 237 girls moving
on a bush track or otherwise, at least one or two villagers would have
seen and the stories are a bit difficult to comprehend. What were
the security agents in that area doing? What was the reaction of the
school principal? And how come the principal's daughters were not
abducted? The female teachers were not touched? Continue...
Some of them were said to
have escaped...maybe released..no gun was fired.. not a single child was
fired and you know that has not been the practice in the past. And it
has taken Boko Haram almost three weeks to come up to say we are the
ones who did this and you know almost all the things suggested in the
local media are the same things they are now saying. For instance, we
have somebody, I don't know if it was Channels TV who said oh the girls
have been sold for N2,000 and all of a sudden the main man came up on
CNN and on Youtube and said I am going to sell your girls. So its as if
we are even suggesting to them what they should do. He did not say I
have sold your girls but the other person said the girls have been sold
to their various husbands. So I think we must focus on rescuing those
girls and drop a little bit of politics and a little bit of propaganda.
Its a situation that touches all families. I have four girls in my
family, four daughters so you can imagine I am not sleeping well and I
don't expect any parent in Nigeria to sleep well until the girls are
back" he said.
