Chibok women protest in Abuja, urge action to rescue kidnapped girls
(Nigeria) Some women of Chibok, Borno State, on Tuesday
marched to National Assembly, urging the Federal Government to intensify
efforts to rescue the remaining 230 female students abducted two weeks ago.
It will be recalled that 273 girls were abducted from Government
Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno, by suspected Boko Haram insurgents on
April 14.
The number, 43 girls had so far escaped from the captors
unharmed.
However, the women, led by Mrs Naomi Mutah, said since the
incident, no government official had reached the community to explain the
efforts being made to rescue the girls.
``Our daughters were carried away by the insurgents like
cows into the wilderness. If they are dead; we want to see their corpses. For
the past two weeks that the incident occurred, nobody has talked to us; has the
government thrown away the bath water with the baby?’’
Mutah said that they came to Abuja to express their
dissatisfaction with the way the rescue effort of their kidnapped daughters was
being handled.
``We have come here to express our dismay, probably if the
government sees us like this; it may ginger them to do what they are supposed
to do. We want government to rescue our daughters from their abductors’’, she
said.
Earlier, Sen. Barnabas Gemade, who addressed the women on
behalf of the Senate President David Mark, said the National Assembly was
saddened by the incident.
``I want to assure that the Senate is not sleeping, senate
is not reneging on its responsibility but is working very hard that something
is done very urgently on this matter.’’
Gemade said the first issue handled by the senate when it
resumed on Tuesday was a motion on the abduction.
He assured that government was doing everything possible to
address the issue without further delay.
Sen. Helen Esuene and Sen. Zainab Kure also appealed to them
to remain calm, assuring that the matter was being addressed.
Sen. Ali Ndume (Borno South) also came to address them.
Ndume, addressing newsmen later, urged security agencies to
intensify their search and rescue the girls.
``There is no other solution than intensifying action
whether by seeking external support or by engaging everybody to make sure that
these girls are returned to their parents. The longer it takes, the dimmer the
chances, the longer it takes, the more traumatising it is for the family,
especially the girls, who find themselves in that condition’’, he said.
Ndume, who could not hold back tears while addressing the
women, said only God knows what the girls were passing through in the hands of
their abductors.
The women, dressed in black, had converged on Eagle Square
before marching to the National Assembly and handed a letter to Gemade for
onward delivery to the leadership of National Assembly.
It will be recalled that the people of Chibok, under the
Kibaku Area Development Association, KADA, on April 17, appealed to the Federal
Government to intensify effort and rescue the girls.
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