Okoh Urges FG To Search For Chibok Girls Via Technology

• Calls For EU, US Assistance • Tells Nigerians To Be Patient With President Buhari
THE Primate of All Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Most Rev Nicholas Okoh has urged the federal government to search for the missing Chibok girls through technology

Speaking at the official commissioning and dedication of Anglican Hospital at the St Andrews Anglican Church, Kubwa, Abuja, Okoh pleaded with the European Union (EU), the United States and other world leaders to come forward and help Nigeria to locate and rescue the girls.

“The story of the Chibok girls is a bad one. The parents are not happy, the president is not pleased with the inability of Nigeria to do something better. Some have said that the Chibok girls have been married out, some said they have been distributed to different places while some said they are already being used as suicide bombers. We don’t know exactly and that complicates the whole situation. We are trusting that the military should be able to do more to rescue the girls. Government should seek a more advanced way of locating the whereabouts of the Chibok girls through technology. As it is now, the soldiers have searched the Sambisa Forest, they have searched through all the nooks and crannies of the place and were unable to find the girls,” he lamented.

On the war against insurgency in the country, Okoh noted that although the situation appears to be better than it was before, threat to security has not completely died out as “some members of our church who left their locations before the elections are yet to return to where they used to reside”.

He revealed that the church is working to quantify the cost of damages incurred by Boko Haram activities in the Northeast, and is compiling the list of people who have died and the property destroyed with the hope of presenting it to government for compensation.

The Primate urged Nigerians to unite against terror and evil people who want to disorganize the country, stressing that if they succeed, everyone will become refugees in other countries.

Okoh urged government to t do more to restore confidence in the civil populace so that they can trust the leadership. “Government should do more to ensure that worshippers, whether Christians or Muslim, are able to worship without fear.

On President Muhammadu Buhari’s three months in office, Okoh said: “Nigerians should be patient; three months is not enough to judge a government. Mr. President has explained that this is not a military administration that he had the privilege to lead before; that this is a democracy and he has to be very careful in whatever step he has to take so that people do not drag his name in the mud.

On the move by the Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Commission to reduce the pay of pubic office holders, Okoh said: “To reduce the cost of governance requires more than reducing salaries, it requires a structural adjustment. That is to say, should the people in parliament be there on permanent basis or on part-time basis, so that if they are there on part-time basis, they earn allowances but as it is now, they are employed into business of law making.

“Also, other leakages and duplications in government need to be looked into if we really want to reduce the cost of governance”.