GOV GODSWILL AKPABIO EXPRESSES RESERVATIONS ABOUT ABDUCTED GIRLS

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.