Secure Chibok girls’, Leah Sharibu’s release, Tunde Bakare tells FG

FOUNDER and Senior Pastor of the Latter Rain Assembly, Lagos, Pastor Tunde Bakare, on Saturday, called on the Federal Government to do all that is necessary to secure the release of the remaining Chibok school girls and Leah Sharibu, one of the recently abducted Dapchi school girls, who was reportedly held back for refusing to denounce her religion.

This was just as he berated the abduction of school girls and other problematic issues encountered by the girl child in any society as “symptoms of an underlying malady that must be diagnosed.”

Bakare made these positions at the 2nd annual #ChibokGirls lecture, held in Abuja, stating that Leah has become the symbol of the validity of the Nigerian constitution, “section 38 of which guarantees religious freedom.”

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Noting that her safe return is synonymous with the constitutional stability and sanctity of the Nigerian state, Bakare said: “The Nigerian government must do all that is necessary to bring the Chibok girls and Leah Sharibu back and alive… Not just because their parents and the Nigerian creeks cannot wait to see them back, but also because of what they now represent to the Nigerian nation. Leah Sharibu has become a symbol of the Nigerian constitution.”

“Our hearts go out to parents and prayers go out to her wherever she is at the moment. And we affirm in the spirit of hope that very soon, we will see her safely returned to us.

Bakare, who also noted that the fact that Dapchi and Chibok girls’ abductions happened one year into elections was “evidence of an alarming national malady,” said: “There is something wrong when a nation is twice bitten, yet never shy with respect to the safety and security of its girl child.

“There is something undeniably wrong when the girl child repeatedly becomes the bargaining instrument in negotiation deals between the government and terrorists. There is something absolutely wrong when the girl child becomes a pawn in a political chess game in which the major political parties seek to score political points.”