President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has called on servicemen in the country to do all that is within their powers to rescue abducted secondary school student, Leah Sharibu, and two aid workers from Boko Haram captivity.
Recall that Boko Haram terrorists, in a video on Monday, threatened to kill the three after killing another aid worker they had with them. Sharibu was one of 109 students of the Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State abducted by the terrorists, but she was kept for refusing to renounce her faith in Jesus Christ. Three others died in captivity, while 105 were released to the federal government after the payment of an undisclosed sum as ransom.
Government continues to claim it did not pay out any ransom, even after the United Nation claimed it did.
Said Saraki on Tuesday: “Additionally, the continued abduction of the late Saifura’s ICRC colleagues, Hauwa and Alice, by the militants, alongside the captivity of the young Dapchi schoolgirl, Leah Sharibu, must end.
“I call on our brave servicemen and women on the frontlines to do all that they can to protect the rescue workers on the ground and employ every God-given resource that is available to us to rescue Leah Sharibu and the ICRC humanitarian workers.
“We will continue to support the government, to ensure that peace and security are restored in the North-east,” Saraki said.
He has earlier condemned the killing of Saifura Hussaini Ahmed Khorsa – the humanitarian worker from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) – by Boko Haram terrorists.
In a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media & Publicity Yusuph Olaniyonu, in Abuja, Saraki stated that the killing of aid workers represents a new low by Boko Haram insurgents, while calling for immediate action by the military to ensure that Leah Sharibu and the other two Red Cross workers still in Boko Haram’s captivity are released.
Saraki said: “My thoughts and prayers are with the family and loved ones of Saifura Hussaini Ahmed Khorsa — the young 25-year old female international aid worker who was abducted and killed by Boko Haram.
“Such horrific actions have no place in Nigeria. I join all Nigerians and the international community in condemning this killing in the strongest possible terms.
“The killing of aid workers, who choose to go into troubled spots, both in Nigeria and around the world, represents a new low by the insurgents, as humanitarian workers are some of the most courageous and selfless people on the planet.”