Tallen: FG Working Towards Leah Sharibu’s Release

Olawale Ajimotokan

Minister of   Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Pauline Tallen, has said the federal government was doing all it could to ensure the return of Dapchi school girl, Leah Sharibu, who was abducted in March 2018.

Tallen, who made the remarks yesterday at the 13th edition of the “PMB Administration Scorecard” in Abuja, however, called on all hands to be on deck as security issue should be seen as everyone’s concern rather than a responsibility of the government alone.

Tallen, who said she had visited Sharibu’s parents and had reached out in support to them, added: “If you come to my office, you will see photographs of where I have visited Leah Sharibu’s parents and I have reached out to support them.

“Anything I put forward to Mr President’s desk, concerning them, he approves. You can also see in one of the photographs, the helicopter and the security personnel Mr President approved for me to go to Chibok and I have gone there three times.

“Leah Sharibu’s parents are not in Chibok but the military made arrangements for me to see them at the Airforce Base in Yola due to security concern.”

She, therefore, urged Nigerians to be sincere enough to support the military with the right information for them to secure the release of the Chibok and Dapchi girls still in captivity.

Her words: “I am touched as a mother and I know that this is a season that we should show love at everyone including those in captivity. Our prayers are with them and I know that very soon, God will release these children,” even as she lamented that party politics at the high hierarchy was skewed against the women folk.

“If you are not within the party structure in the party secretariat, you will be phased out. So, a lot of women that are qualified, who bought the form, whom we sensitised, mentored years before the election, but when it comes to election time, they buy the forms and they are phased out. In our country, the men are so domineering and self-centred, they don’t want to give space to women.”

She, however, appealed that Senator Aisha Binani, be supported in her bid to clinch the governorship seat in Adamawa State, while other women seeking elective positions be supported.

“If we don’t have women at the decision table, there is no way our laws can be better, that would suit the family,” she warned.