SENATOR GODSWILL AKPABIO’S STATEMENT PUTS TENSION IN NASS AS HE WARNS PUBLIC ON APC PLANS FOR CHIBOK GIRLS

The former governor of Akwa Ibom state and Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, yesterday lampooned Dino Melaye and the other leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) over claims that they cashed in on the abduction of the 219 Chibok girls. 

The senator said the APC and some of its members had cashed in on the girls’ abduction but have suddenly gone quiet since winning the election.

Senator Akpabio criticised the APC’s stance on the Chibok girls “I wonder why those who led protests against the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan to rescue the girls have suddenly kept mum,” Senator Akpabio said. “I remember in 2014, Dino Melaye used to wear a T-shirt and he led the protest to ensure that the abducted school girls were released. He was always at the National Fountain to lead a protest against the government.” “He eventually cashed in on it and won elections. Other people in APC did the same thing.”

 Senator Melaye, while lamenting about the plight of the girls and their parents, said the federal government cannot be said to have succeeded until the girls are rescued.

 “We cannot succeed as a government until those girls are released. Getting back the over 200 Chibok school girls into the society is important and a must for our security agencies,” he said. “The abduction of over 200 girls by Boko Haram has wrongly affected us as a people as could be seen in the international condemnation of the government’s slow reaction to this unprecedented outrage committed against Nigerian womanhood. “Never before has such criminal viciousness been perpetrated on Nigerian womanhood.”

Other senators who supported the motion called on the federal government to go beyond the yearly ritual of mourning the anniversary of the abduction and called on the government to explore every available avenue to ensure that the girls are rescued. Adopting the prayers of the motion, the senate mandated the relevant security agencies to do everything humanly possible to ensure the release of the girls. They unanimously resolved that the National Security Adviser (NSA) and all the service chiefs will be invited to brief the Senate in a closed door session on their efforts to recover the girls.