ICC Note: The Presidential Committee in Nigeria that focuses on the abduction of the Chibok girls has just submitted a report to the Nigerian government containing their recommendations pertaining to the rescue of the girls. In this report, they entreat the federal government to obtain foreign assistance and high-tech equipment in order to improve their chances of locating and rescuing the girls. Ultimately, the rescue will take place with one of two methods: negotiation or military operation, the report says. It lays out the pros and cons for both of these methods. The Chibok girls, most of whom are Christian, were abducted by Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram in April of 2014 from their secondary school in Chibok, Nigeria. Fifty-seven of the girls escaped after their abduction, and one has been rescued, but there are still 218 girls missing. Boko Haram, since its birth in 2009, continues to notoriously abduct women and girls, marrying them off to fighters, and forcibly converting them to Islam. 

07/18/2016, Nigeria (Premium Times) – The Presidential Fact-Finding Committee on the Abducted Female Students of Government Secondary School, Chibok, has asked the federal government to take advantage of foreign support, backed with hi-tech equipment, to locate the abducted girls and rescue them.

It also called for the beefing up of arms and ammunition of the military as well as the strengthening of security agencies in the theatre of operation.

The committee made the recommendations in its 50-page report submitted to the government and which was obtained exclusively by PREMIUM TIMES.

The 27-member panel chaired by Ibrahim Sabo, a retired brigadier general, was inaugurated by former President Goodluck Jonathan on May 6, 2014, to, among other things find out the circumstances leading to the abduction of the 276 female students of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State on April 14, 2014 by Boko Haram terrorists.

The establishment of the committee followed claims and counterclaims about the circumstances and the actual number of students abducted by the terrorists.

The panel submitted its report to then President Jonathan, but its details have never been made public.

In the report, the Committee, which sat for five weeks, said altogether 276 students out of the 395 female students that registered for the WAEC examination were abducted by the terrorists.

It further stated that while 57 of the students escaped from the insurgents after the abduction, the remaining 219 were unaccounted for.

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