By Danlami Nmodu
The United States Government has restated its call on Boko Haram to free the kidnapped Chibok school girls and others in their custody without precondition.This position was re-emphasized Tuesday by Ms Marie Harf ,acting spokesperson during the State Department daily press briefing in Washington, DC.
Speaking on the anniversary of the kidnap of over 200 Chibok School girls by Boko Haram, Harf said “we’ve been involved for some time here, and again, on this anniversary call for all hostages held by Boko Haram, including these girls, to be released immediately without preconditions. We have supported Nigerian efforts to bring about the safe recovery of those who’ve been kidnapped, certainly not just the girls but others as well.
“Secretary Kerry, when we were there in Lagos in January, made an important point about Nigeria having peaceful and credible elections in order to effectively combat Boko Haram. And as we’ve seen with the conduct of the recent elections as well as, I think, President Jonathan’s statesmanship in accepting the results that this, I think, bodes well for ongoing and future counterterrorism actions. And President Buhari has indicated that he wants to focus on counterterrorism as well.
The acting spokesperson said “We still have an interdisciplinary team in Abuja that consists of specialists on temporary assignment and personnel assigned to the Embassy from a number of U.S. Government agencies. The number varies from time to time depending on specific assistance being requested by the government, whether this can be staff already in Abuja or whether we need to send new people. So we’ve continued to help both in the search, providing training, equipment to try and help them find not just the girls but all of those kidnapped by Boko Haram.”
