Sambisa is 18 times the size of Lagos | A Roundup of everything we learnt from the BBOG’s day tour of Sambisa

On the 11th of January, 2017, the Federal Government did something it had never done before. A letter was written to the conveners of the Bring Back Our Girls group inviting them to join the Chief of Air Staff and the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, Ministers of Defence and Information, Mansur Dan Ali and Lai Mohammed on a guided trip to the North East to witness, first hand, the efforts being made to rescue the remaining Chibok Girls.

After what seemed like some relunctance on the part of the group, Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili and Aisha Yesufu finally joined the Federal Government entourage and select members of the press on said guided trip. They have been there less than 24 hours now but a lot more has become clearer than ever before, many thanks to these resilient women.

Their trip to the North-East especially the infamous Sambisa forest has uncovered the following information:

The cost of operating the relentless search for the girls using the Nigerian Air Force

It is no news that troops of the Operation Lafiya Dole have been on standby in the North East making gallant efforts drive out the Boko Haram insurgents as well as to recover the girls and others held captive by the terror group. But how much has this operation cost the nation in monetary terms?

The first thing the team did upon arrival in the North East was to listen to a briefing by Air Vice Marshall Nurudeen Balogun and Tactical Commander, Air Commodor Charles Ohwo. It was during this briefing that it came to light that the Nigerian Air Force spent a total of 2.738 billion Naira in 2016 to ensure a functional air component of the Operation Lafiya Dole, in the Northeastern part of Nigeria.

There are more Nigerians to look for than the #ChibokGirls

A lot of the coverage of abductions by the Boko Haram insurgents have been focused on the Chibok Girls. We have often neglected the fact that the group hasn’t stopped abducting since the most notorious April 2014 abduction of over 200 school girls in Chibok.

One of the journalists who went on the trip posted via Twitter that the troops of Operation Lafiya Dole have sighted abductees in villages around the North East like Njimia and Yuwe.

The commanding officers revealed that some of these abductees were cited on January 7 and 12, 2017 and that those abductees who were rescued, have been handed over to the ground troops in Maiduguri.

Sambisa is larger than we have been made to believe

Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili posted this in the evening:

The Nigerian Army has often given off the impression that Sambisa has been taken back from the Boko Haram insurgents but this new information is enough to help us understand that there is still a long way to go.

And finally, that  Camp Zero is only a dot within this large expanse of land.

The team have now gone on the night sortie and we will be watching out for what other new information that may bring to light.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

cool good eh love2 cute confused notgood numb disgusting fail