Ezekwesili Laments Execution of Hauwa by Boko Haram

By Dipo Olowookere

Co-convener of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG), Dr Oby Ezekwesili, on Tuesday described Boko Haram’s execution of Hauwa Liman, a worker with the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), as heart-breaking.

The death of the 24-year-old medical aid worker at the hands of the sect was confirmed by the Federal Government and ICRC on Monday.

Liman was kidnapped alongside others in March in Rann, Borno State when the insurgents attacked a camp for displaced persons.

One of the kidnapped aid workers, Saifura Khosa, had earlier been executed in September.

After the murder of Khosa, Boko Haram released a video threatening to kill Liman, and Leah Sharibu, one of the schoolgirls abducted at Government Secondary School, Dapchi, Yobe State earlier in the year.

Reacting on the killing, Ezekwesili, in a statement signed by her media aide, Miss Chioma Agbuegwo, in Lagos said it was painful that Liman was eventually killed by members of the sect.

She said it was sad that the nation failed her just as the death of Khosa, who was earlier murdered by the deadly sect could not be averted.

The BBOG Convener added that Liman’s death, as well as the case of Sharibu, should deeply worry the nation and provoke her to be proactive in securing the life of her citizens.

“This is heartbreaking. This should haunt us as a nation. This should haunt us as a people.

“This should deeply worry us that we failed this young woman, which we continue to fail Leah Sharibu and other young women and men and children in captivity; that we find ourselves helpless in the face of terrorists.

“Have we become a nation that cannot save the lives of its own citizens? We cannot go on like this,’’ she said.

Ezekwesili called on President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure the release of the third aid worker, Alice Loksha, who she said had endured seven months in captivity.

“The president has a duty to secure the release of Leah Sharibu, Alice Loksha and the remaining 112 Chibok girls. Our country cannot lose any one of them to the terrorists,” she said.

Ezekwesili offered her condolences to the family of the late aid worker, saying her thoughts and prayers were with them in this distressing time.