Following fears that the 219 abducted Chibok school girls may be indoctrinated and used as suicide bombers, the Federal Government has said that it is powerless to stop such indoctrination since the schoolgirls are not under its control.
This position was given by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retd) while briefing State House correspondents on the outcome of an extra-ordinary meeting of the National Council of State, presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday.
Also at the briefing were governors Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Babangida Aliyu (Niger) and Sullivan Chime (Enugu).
Sambo, who was responding to a question on the effort of government to stop the Chibok girls from being brainwashed and recruited as suicide bombers, said government cannot do anything since the girls were not under its custody.
However, he revealed that from information available to government, the girls that had been used to carry out suicide bombing in the country so far were not indoctrinated.
The NSA said: “What really can anybody do? The Chibok girls who are in captivity are not under Federal Government control. The only thing we do is trying to address those who are outside who would have contact with them.
“If they are released today, we have a programme we put them through to make sure that if there is any indoctrination, we try to at least reduce the intensity if we don’t erase it completely. That is all we can do before they go back into normal life.
“Other than that, I’m not sure there is anything. We can’t do anything to prevent their being indoctrinated, if that is the choice.
“But the girls that are doing this thing are not by any means indoctrinated. That is not what we have as at now. That is not our understanding.”
The NSA also absolved the President from blame in the recent assassination attempt on former Head of State, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, recalling that both Buhari and Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi who were also targeted on the same day by terrorists, had been threatened in February this year by Boko Haram, who called them infidels.
He wondered why those linking Jonathan to the attempt on Buhari’s life were not doing the same in the case of the popular Islamic cleric.
In his remarks, Governor Akpabio disclosed the critical decisions taken by the council to strengthen the unity of the country following the crisis among states, over the attempt to register or deport non-indigenes.
He said council decided that there was the need to abolish the “state of origin” requirement, which it noted, was a form of discrimination against Nigerians and in its place, encourage the use of “place of origin.”
Akpabio, who described Thursday’s meeting as the most critical in the last five years, said it took other preemptive steps to stop the drift towards disunity from deteriorating.
“It was the most important council of state meeting we have had in the last 5 years. We did not only look at the security of the country, we also tried to X-ray in a very frank way the contributions of all nationals, the role played by every leader and the led, to see how we can take preemptive steps not just to stop the possibility of the deterioration of the situation but to ensure the situation is brought to an end in the shortest possible time to give confidence to all Nigerians,” he said.
The Akwa Ibom governor added that the council frowned at the issue of indigeneship and deportation and stressed the need for Nigerians to be able to dwell in any part of the country without molestation.
“We felt that that was capable of disrupting the unity of the country, making Nigerians to become apprehensive and unsafe. Also council frowned at the idea of even registering Nigerians in various parts of the country and felt this must be brought to an end immediately,” he said.
Akpabio disclosed that the council had set up a committee comprising one governor from each of the six geo-political zone, to collate the views of Nigerians regarding discriminatory practices by states and report back to council in the next two weeks.
The governors are Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Sullivan Chime (Enugu), Ibrahim Dankwabo (Gombe), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom) and Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo).
“Council in the course of conclusion decided to set up a committee to further discuss with Nigerians and identify discriminatory practices in all states of the federation and in all the local government areas and then this committee to submit report to council in the next two months, in order for us to know what steps to take to stop such practices,” he added.
Akpabio advised any Nigerian with observations and comments to reach out to the committee.
Governor Chime of Enugu State said in his remarks that the council demonstrated its commitment to the unity of the nation and called for the abolition of “state of origin” question.
In his contribution, Governor Aliyu of Niger State highlighted some of the discriminatory practices that must be done away with for the sake of the unity of the nation.
He said: “What came to the fore in addition to the discriminatory aspect, you may recall that in some states, they even give contract appointment to some people who are not from the state. In some states, there are some discriminatory school fees paid. If not a so called indigene, you pay higher than the indigenes.
“In fact, the very concept of indigeneship came to the fore that whether in Nigeria we should be concerned about so called indigenship or residency. Those are some of the issues that the committee we mentioned will look into.”
Among those in attendance at the meeting were Vice President Namadi Sambo, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal as well as former Chief Justices Muhammed Uwais and Alfa Belgore.
The Governors included Gabriel Suswam (Benue), Godswill Akpabio(Akwa Ibom), Dr. Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo), Babangida Aliu (Niger), Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe), Ramalan Yero (Kaduna) and Sullivan Chime (Enugu).
Also present were Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Abdufatah Ahmed (Kwara), Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), Willy Obiano (Anambra) and Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Abubakar Yari (Zamfara), Ibrahim Shettima (Borno) and Acting Governor of Adamawa state, Umaru Fintiri.
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