Members of the #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) group have accused the Federal Government of ascribing too much power to Boko Haram.
It accused the government of allowing them the leeway to determine the process for the swapping of the Chibok girls with the sect’s detainees.
The group, which protested to the Aso Villa gate yesterday, after the expiration of their 72 hours deadline, said the protest was because there is no evidence of result- targeted action by the Federal Government.
A statement by the group’s leader, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili and Strategic Team leader Aisha Yesufu, reads: “Today marks our third attempt at engaging with our democratically elected President, in the last eight (8) days. It is also sixteen days since the ‘Plea-For-Rescue’ video was released by the terrorists, who still hold 218 of our Chibok girls hostage, 869 days after the abduction on April 14, 2014.
“We are out again because no evidence of persuasive, deliberate and result- targeted action has been conveyed by our President and the Federal Government.
“We must as always however first acknowledge the courage and gallantry of our soldiers in the frontlines, the Multinational Joint Task Force, and the Civilian JTF, and urge them to remain resilient in the face of attacks as these. Their labour and sacrifice shall never be in vain. We acknowledge the return of thousands of our fellow citizens who were never confirmed by the Federal Government to be missing but have since been rescued by our military.
“We acknowledge that since our march of the 25th August 2016, a statement was made by Mr. President in far-away Kenya, on the side-lines of the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI). In the said statement as reported by the media, Mr. President suggested a willingness to swap our #ChibokGirls for Boko Haram fighters preferring that the terrorists engaged an international Non-Governmental Organisation in the intermediation process if they so wish.
“We fail to understand why our Federal Government is giving so much powers to determine process and first mover actions to the terrorists. We have always maintained that the President has the powers to assemble all relevant intelligence assets required for determining the best action in terms of lowest risk option. Many countries with superior capabilities have indicated willingness to help our government gather security and intelligence assets on this and other related Northeast challenges.”