The Bring Back Our Girls Group (BBOG) has urged the federal government to reunite the recently released captives of Boko Haram insurgents with the families.
The group in a statement signed by Sesugh Akume, yesterday, said the continued delay in reuniting the former captives with their families was extending their trauma.
The presidency confirmed the release of 13 persons by the insurgents over the weekend including three oil explorers from the University of Maiduguri.
The 10 women and the oil explorers were kidnapped in different incidents by Boko Haram.
The group said rather than the government playing politics with the matter, it should immediately release details of those released by the insurgents and reunite them with their families.
â€The characteristic failure of governance in Nigeria has again shown its ugliness as 72 full hours after the news broke that 10 Lassa women and the three University of Maiduguri lecturers were returned from captivity, the Government of Nigeria has kept mute, keeping the disconsolate families, communities, interested groups, citizens and the public at large in the dark, only imagining.
“Three days after the former captives were returned, no member of their families have been reached by the government to be formally briefed of the return of their loved ones. Their communities and the public at large is unaware of which 10 of the 16 abducted persons on that 20 June 2017 incidence on Maiduguri – Damboa road are back, and what next for the remaining six.
“The excitement of the last 72 hours is fast approaching an anticlimax as the families do not know whether to stay excited and hopeful or confused and imagine the worst? They are wondering which pain is worse: having loved ones with terrorists, or being said to be back but being in the dark about it, confused,†the group said.
It also noted the pathetic story of the family of one of the victims whose emotional trauma could only be assuaged if the captive returns to the embrace of his family.
â€The wife of Dr Solomon Nehemiah Yusuf went into a forced labour when she heard of her husband’s abduction and was delivered of a baby girl. Today, 200 days later, the little girl is eager to see her father for the very first time. The father is eager to see his daughter too. This is just one of 13 examples. Families are eager to reunite with their loved ones. Those whose family members may not yet be back also deserve an empathic and appropriate response.
“Our movement calls on the Federal Government of Nigeria to immediately, and without further delay do the right thing, and break the uneasy silence,†the group said.
Reactions from the federal government could not be immediately gotten at the time of filing report.
The BBOG has been at the forefront of agitations to prompt the government to ensure the safe return of 276 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in April 2014. They have carried out their campaigns largely peacefully via sit-outs and marches across the country.
