Why FG should probe Boko Haram attack on UN chopper, by expert

• MBF raises concern over the neglect of Chibok girls

President of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria (AISSON), Dr. Ona Ekhomu, has called for a forensic probe on last Thursday’s attack on a United Nations flight by Boko Haram terrorists.

In a statement made available to The Guardian, the security expert stressed that the capability and willingness to attack civil aviation, which had not previously been displayed – as exhibited in the UN helicopter attack – has moved the threat level to the maximum.

According to him, the attack on the UN helicopter in Damasak was ground-to-air and the fact that the plane survived the attack with bullet holes and flew back 150km to Maiduguri showed that it was apparently an anti-aircraft (AA) gun attack.

Reacting to the incident, Ekhomu said apparently the UN humanitarian agencies and the Federal Government did not carry out a robust risk assessment of the flight.

He urged the air force detectives to properly process the crime scenes in Damasak and Maiduguri and determine the calibre of weapon that fired the shots.

Ekhomu, who authored the new best-selling book, Boko Haram: Security Considerations and the Rise of an Insurgency, argued that the ‘threatscape’ had after last Thursday’s attacks.

MEANWHILE, the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has raised concern over the neglect of the Chibok schoolgirls – both the rescued 103 and the 112 in captivity.

On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram abducted 219 girls who were writing their secondary school leaving test in Chibok.

This was contained in a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Dr. Isuwa Dogo, and made available to The Guardian in Abuja.

The statement indicated that the girls were rescued in two batches of 21 and 82, while four escaped individually at different times within the six years of their captivity.

“The 103 rescued girls were initially transferred to the Women Development Centre, Abuja, where they underwent Psychosocial Support (PSS) and treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) facilitated by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA),” he noted.

Dogo pointed out that since May 2017 when they were rescued, rehabilitated and sent to the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, to prepare them to re-take their West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and proceed to pre-degree programmes, neither the re-sitting of the examination nor the pre-degree programme had seen the light of day.

His words, “The inability of the Federal Government and those directly responsible for the welfare and progress of the rescued girls to monitor and evaluate their educational progress have rendered bleak the girls’ future.”

Presently, he added, no fewer than 10 of the girls have since dropped out, and there are fears that more may not return after the total easing of the lockdown.