Buhari’s government deserves no applause for release of Dapchi girls – Poll

Barely 24 hours after 104 Dapchi schoolgirls were returned to their village, the majority of respondents to an online poll conducted by The Guardian said the government deserves no positive reward for its role in the girls’ freedom.

The girls were among the 110 snatched by suspected Boko Haram insurgents from their School on February 19. They were released around 3: 00 am on Wednesday, Nigeria’s minister of information Lai Mohammed said.

Five of the girls are dead while another is yet to be freed by the abductors.

Negotiations through a back-channel led to the release the girls and two other persons, the Nigerian government said Wednesday.

Regardless of the safe return of most of the victims, 38.3 per cent of the 1440 respondents said the Buhari government must be shown the way out in the next general elections. This stance may not be unconnected with the allegations that the military was complicit in the kidnapping.

Amnesty International said earlier in the week that the Nigerian military was warned prior the raid similar to the one that led to the kidnap of Chibok girls on April 14, 2014. It blamed the latest kidnap on the “inexcusable security lapses” on the part of the military.

Another 31 per cent wanted the government interrogated as to why it was easier to secure the release of the girls while some of the Chibok girls kidnapped in 2014 are still in captivity.

However, 30.7 per cent of the respondents noted that the government should be applauded and rewarded with a reelection in 2019.