Senators have flayed the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshall Alex Badeh, over his comment that the Nigerian military knows where the abducted Chibok girls are held in captivity by Boko Haram but would not rescue them forcibly to prevent them from being killed by their captives.
This is just as the Senate appealed to Boko Haram to release the abducted girls in the spirit of the Children’s Day.
Senators who spoke separately with newsmen over the comment on Monday in Abuja by Badeh, wondered why the CDS would say that the military has discovered the camps where the abducted girls were being held only to describe it as a military secret.
Speaking, Senator Uche Chukwumerije said it was an amazing thing for the CDS to disclose what the military considers as a secret to the general public.
Chukwumerije said: “I am very much elated by the news that the location of our girls is now known to the army.
“But like the rest of the nation, especially observers, I am puzzled by one phrase, according to the military spokesman, their location is a military secret.
“Now what puzzles me is simply this: why do you make public what you consider a military secret?
“As you are announcing the location or your discovery of the location of these girls, the news is being known to those holding them captive.
“And you think they are going to stay there and wait for you until you come to locate the girls and take them away?
“This puzzles me because we know in all American military operations.
“You don’t hear a word about that until after their mission is accomplished.
“The next you will hear is that their mission accomplished.
“When the leader of Al Qaeda was dealt with, we know how it was done.
“Nobody even had a wind of what was going on until it was completed.
“So let us hope and pray that if the news of the location of the girls is true, that the enemy is not sufficiently warned to move before our men would strike.
“But to us, it is wonder of wonders that what the military considers as secret is what it announced as secret and want us not to divulge the secret.”
Also speaking, Senator Abdulahi Adamu described Badeh’s statement as inappropriate.
Adamu said the matter is more serious than how CDS is handling it.
According to him, some talk before they think.
He said the country ought to have declared national mourning on the issue.
Meanwhile, the Senate has urged the Boko Haram insurgents holding the girls in captivity to release them in the spirit of the Children’s Day, which was given a low key celebration across the country on Tuesday on account of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls.
The Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, who spoke on behalf of the Senate at the plenary, urged the abductors to release the girls in the spirit of the Children’s Day celebration.
Ndoma-Egba also drew the Senate’s attention to the challenges confronting the Nigerian child of today.
He said children can only become true resources and wealth if they are well educated.
He said: “Let me on behalf of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria congratulate the children of Nigeria and the children of the world on this day, which is their day.
“Children all over the world represent the wealth hand the resource of every nation.
“They can be a resource only if they are educated.
“Without education, the children, rather than being a resource, will become a burden on society.
“It is for this reason that I also use this opportunity to draw the attention of the Senate and the nation to the challenges being faced by our children in the North East zone of the country.
“May I use this opportunity to appeal to Boko Haram to make this day whole for us as a nation.
“To make this day whole for as humanity by releasing our children in their captivity.”
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