Abducted girls: Chukwumerije hits out at Defence Chief over comment

Senator Uche Chukwumerije has condemned a statement credited to the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh - that the military had discovered the camps where the abducted Chibok girls were being held, according to Punch.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Education, who spoke to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, said that the information should have remained a top military secret.

Hence, he specifically condemned the assertion by Badeh that the military had located the camps where the abducted girls were being held.

“I am very much elated by the news that the location of our girls is now known to the army. But like the rest of the nation, especially observers, I am puzzled by one phrase, according to the military spokesman; their location is a military secret," he said.

“Now what puzzles me is simply this: why do you make public what you consider a military secret? As you are announcing the location or your discovery of the location of these girls, the news is being known to those holding them captive.

“And you think they are going to stay there and wait for you until you come to locate the girls and take them away?

“This puzzles me because we know in all American military operations you don’t hear a word about that until after their mission is accomplished.

“The next you will hear is that their mission has been accomplished. When the leader of Al Qaeda was dealt with, we know how it was done.

“Nobody even had a wind of what was going on until it was completed.

"So, let us hope and pray that if the news of the location of the girls is true that the enemy is not sufficiently warned to move before our men would strike.”