Obiageli Ezekwesili, co-convener of the Bringbackourgirls, BBOG, has finally agreed to join Nigerian troops and a team led by the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed to Sambisa Forest today, Monday, January 15, 2016.
The trip is meant to search for the abducted Chibok schoolgirls in the once dreaded forest, then occupied by Boko Haram insurgents.
Ezekwesili, in an e-mail to the minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed at 8.20pm on Sunday indicated the interest of her group to join the search for the missing girls in Sambisa forest by giving another conditional acceptance which the government met.
Below is the correspondence between Ezekwesili and Alhaji Mohammed on the planned guided tour of Sambisa forest, sent by Segun Adeyemi, an aide of the minister.
”At 8.20 PM on Sunday Evening, BBOG contacted the minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to indicate its conditional acceptance of the offer to travel with the team heading for the NE to witness first-hand the military’s ongoing search for the Chibok Girls.
This came as a surprise, considering that the BBOG had earlier given impractical conditions for joining the trip, and the FG had rejected those conditions.
But the FG still responded, meeting all the fresh conditions stipulated by the BBOG in the conditional acceptance letter
Please find below the details of the latest communication between the FG and the #BBOG
1. LETTER FROM BBOG Co-Convener Oby Ezekwesili to the FG at 8.20 P.M.
From: Oby Ezekwesili
Date: 15 January 2017 at 8:20:43 PM WAT
To: HonMinister InfoCul
Subject: Re: #BBOG LETTER
Thanks Minister Mohammed for your letter of the 14th January in
response to ours.
Can you please quickly provide us more details of the tour duration
and detailed logistics including the names of the local and
international media on the delegation.
We need those information to enable us send you a more substantial
letter conveying our acceptance to join the “Guided Tour”.
Many thanks for your invitation.
Blessings,
Oby
2. RESPONSE FROM THE FG TO #BBOG
Dear Mrs Ezekwesili,
Thank you for your letter which I received via email this Sunday
evening, at 8:20 pm, seeking more details on the planned trip to the
North East.
Let me also express how glad I am that #BBOG is willing to reconsider
its decision not to join us on the trip
The trip will last two days, starting on Monday, 16 Jan. 2017.
Concerning the logistics, the team will be ferried to Yola by the
Nigerian Air Force, from where a select group will join the NAF search
mission to Sambisa (Please see below for the programme).
On the list of the local and international journalists accompanying
us, please see the names below:
1. Stanley Nwosu FRCN
2. Fred Ayo NTA
3. Anthony Forson NTA
4. Solomon Chung VON
5. Ariyo Obagbemile FMIC Photographer
6. Amaka Okafor Channels TV
7. Kabiru Owoyomi Channels TV
8. Felix Onuah Reuters
9. Rotimi Jikanmi NAN
10. Ola Awoniyi AFP
11. Seun The Nation
12. Samson Adeleke CCTV (To syndicate video to international broadcasters)
13. Sola Fabiyi Punch
14. Joseph Mutah CPS
Note: The Times of London Correspondent is on standby
Thanks and best regards
Alhaji Lai Mohammed
Minister of Information and Culture
PROGRAMME
Arrive Monday do the exercise and depart Tuesday
Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (ISR)
Programme is broadly
ISR Day/ Night – planning brief
– Flight over Sambisa
– Debrief (NAN)
