Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s minister of information, Oby Ezekwesili, the leader of the Bring Back Our Girls, BBOG Movement have embarked on a “search for Chibok schoolgirls aboard an air force jet” in infamous Sambisa forest.
Joseph Mutah, the minister’s chief press secretary, disclosed this in an e-mailed statement to The Trent on Monday, January 16, 2017.
“The federal government team conducting the BringBackOurGirls Group and journalists on a mission to Sambisa forest have arrived Yola the Adamawa state capital,” the email said.
“The BBOG team, led by their coordinator, Dr. Oby Ezekweseli, was briefed at the Tactical Command Centre, Yola, by the minister of defence, Brig Gen Mansur Dan-Ali (Rtd); minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed; chief of air staff, vice marshal Sadique Abubakar and other operational commanders.
“The minister of information and culture and that of defence thereafter led the BBOG team and journalists to Sambisa forest in Borno state for the search of the abducted Chibok girls, using sophisticated cameras fixed on two air force jets.”
The statement was accompanied with several photos below:
Back and Forth
Dr. Ezekwesili and BBOG had initially placed conditions for which the group would accept the federal government’s invitation to join the “tour of Sambisa Forest”.
The group demanded a “pre-tour meeting” and an apology from Chief of Army Staff Tukur Buratai for referring to the group as “advocacy terrorism” and members of the group as “advocacy terrorists”.
The group finally agreed to join Nigerian troops and a team of journalists to Sambisa Forest after the minister of information, Lai Mohammed insisted that the tour would go ahead as scheduled – with or without the BBOG representatives.
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, 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.
Additional reports by NAN.
