Chibok: No Plan To Disparage The Military, Says Group

SAN FRANCISCO, May 09, (THEWILL) â€' The solidarity group, #BringBackOurGirls, has replied the Defence Headquarters on the allegations made against it, saying it is committed to engage the military constructively to ensure the safe return of the abducted school girls.

In a statement issued on Friday,and signed by the trio of Oby Ezekwesili, Hadixa Bala Usman and Jibrin Ibrahim, the group said: 'The attention of the leadership of the #BringBackOurGirls Movement has been drawn to a statement by the Director of Defence Information of the Defence Headquarters on the constructive engagement between the DHQ and the Coalition of Civil Society Groups on Tuesday on the ongoing efforts to rescue the abducted girls.

'The statement alleges that we distorted our report on the meeting ostensibly to pitch public opinion against the Armed Forces and to project the Nigerian Military in bad light and further heat-up the polity. 'The release further claimed that we were trying to drag the military into politics.

'We wish to state unequivocally that our objectives were and remain to engage the military constructively to seek pathways towards achieving the collective objective of bringing back our girls.

'The key points we summarised from the presentation of the military are as follows: Troops are effectively deployed on the ground, are making steady progress in the efforts to rescue the girls and the results of their efforts will soon become apparent.

'The operation is difficult and delicate and to avoid providing vital information to the enemy, they have been discrete about their activities.

'Intelligence is a vital part of asymmetrical warfare and all citizens should commit to feeding accurate and useful information to our security agencies.

'We are a single issue coalition without any political, religious, ethnic or regional dimensions to our struggle. Far from seeking to undermine the efforts of the military, we are determined to enhance it and make it more robust and effective.

'Our concerns about the lack of results so far were aimed at motivating the military to more effective action.

'Immediately after the meeting, we prepared and circulated a report of the discussions which is clearly intended to promote a common understanding of the problems and promote more effective action.'

The group therefore appealed to the military high command to see its campaign as one that is motivated by the humanist concern of saving the girls from their kidnappers.

'We would like to reiterate, once more, that the sole focus and aim of this campaign is to achieve the safe return of the abducted girls; not to malign the Federal Government or undermine the Military in anyway.

'We hereby restate our resolve to support the Military in its efforts to achieve the desired result,' it added.