The Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday claimed that the swap deal under
which another 82 Chibok schoolgirls were released last weekend was
actually approved by the immediate past president, Dr. Goodluck
Jonathan.
Its deputy National Chairman, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, made the assertion at a press briefing in Abuja.
Reacting to a statement by the party’s
Caretaker Committee on the swapping of some Boko Haram insurgents with
the girls, he said no price was too big for the freedom of the
schoolgirls, abducted three years ago, to pay.
The caretaker committee led by Senator
Ahmed Makarfi had in a statement by its spokesman, Prince Dayo Adeyeye,
on Sunday, faulted the release of suspected Boko Haram commanders in
exchange for the girls, describing it as an “unusual price.”
Ojougboh said he was part of the Federal
Government team that negotiated for the release of the Chibok girls in
2014, explaining that the moves that culminated in the release of the
girls started during Jonathan’s tenure.
According to him, the former President
apart from authorising the swap of some Boko Haram detainees with the
girls also set up a team to negotiate with the insurgents to secure the
release of the girls. He said regrettably, the swap deal was scuttled at
the last minute.
Ojougboh said: “Let us make it very clear that the effort and the battle for the release of the girls started a long time ago. Sometimes
in May 2014, a consultant of the World Bank visited Nigeria and
approached Chief E.K Clark and told him that the Chibok girls were alive
and could be rescued.
“Chief Clark made contact with the then
president Goodluck Jonathan. Arrangements were made to release the
Chibok girls sometimes in May 2014. I went for the meeting for the
exchange.
“Conditions that were set involved the
release of the Boko Haram prisoners. When the Boko Haram representatives
met us first, they said 10 of their mallams were arrested in Bauchi
when they were praying.
“When we took the information to the DSS and then Chief of Defence Staff (Alex Badeh), they laughed.
They said those arrested were hardened Boko Haram members.
“We took the information to the
President. The President said whatever it takes to release the Chibok
girls, any swap that these people demand, he approved it.”
Ojoughoh added after Jonathan left office
in 2015, the negotiations continued with Switzerland Embassy and the
International Red Cross playing key roles:
“We are very happy that the 82 girls have
been released. We are also concerned about the remaining girls.
We urge
the Federal Government to continue this process of negotiations and do
whatever it takes for the release of the remaining girls.”
Ojougboh urged the public to disregard
the comments by the PDP caretaker committee on the swap, noting that the
committee did not have the authority to speak for the party on any
issue.
Also yesterday, the Federal Government,
accused the Markafi faction of the PDP of being patently insensitive to
human life, describing a statement credited to it flaying the process
that led to the release of the 82 Chibok schoolgirls as indecent,
inhuman and ill-timed.
It said this was not time for any
individual or organisation to seek to deride the achievement recorded
with the release of the highest number of the abducted girls in the name
of politics.
This was just as the Nigeria Labour
Congress (NLC), asked the Buhari administration to do everything within
its limit to secure the release of the remaining Chibok schoolgirls in
captivity, saying that no demand
was too much for their freedom.
Minister of Information and Culture,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a statement in Abuja said Markafi’s party, whose
incompetence and cluelessness precipitated the Chibok girls crisis in
the first instance, was not wishing and praying for it to end with the
safe return of the abducted girls.
He said although a lot of factors would
come to play for a nation to decide on whether or not to engage in
prisoner/hostage swap, but stated that none of the reasons outweighed
the sanctity of life and the considerations for the emotional trauma of
the loved ones of those involved.
He queried: ‘’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?”
He maintained that it was the then
PDP-controlled Federal Government’s disregard for human life that led to
loss of critical time for their rescue even before they acknowledged
the abduction.
NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, agreed that
the victory over Boko Haram cannot be complete without rescuing the
remaining missing girls.
“We therefore, call on the government,
especially Mr. President to step up the process of the rescue of the
remaining girls in captivity. No demand can be said to be too much for
their freedom,” he stated.
The League of Upcoming Political Parties
(LUPP), also described the statement credited to Makarfi’s faction of
PDP as “shocking from a confused group.”
A statement by its national coordinator,
Dr. Musa Ahmadu, in Kaduna yesterday said, “is more shocking that the
statement was coming from the faction led by a man who has been the
executive governor and chief security officer of a state for eight years
and who is widely acclaimed to have brought relative peace to his state
of Kaduna during his tenure.
“The release of the 82 girls, the largest
number so far, rather than sadden the parents of those that are yet to
return, has followed a similar pattern by reigniting the hope of the
parents of those yet to see their children that it remains a matter of
time for them to be equally lucky.
“The release has not only restored hope
in the whole of Chibok, Borno State and Nigeria but globally, that not
only are these girls alive and well but with the application of
efficient strategies, the remaining girls would be found and rescued.”