Members of the #BringBackOurGirls advocacy group have accused the Federal Government of abandoning the remaining 112 Chibok schoolgirls to their fate.
They said five years after the abduction of the schoolgirls, their parents were grieving without a glint of hope for the release of their daughters.
The activists noted that similar neglect had befallen the parents of Leah Sharibu, an abducted victim of insurgents.
#BBOG said Federal Government’s failure on the Chibok schoolgirls had become a sore point in the nation’s history.
A representative of the group, Nifemi Onifade, stated this in a speech co-signed by fellow members of the group, Florence Ozor and Gapani Yanga.
Onifade spoke at the fifth year anniversary of the Chibok schoolgirls’ abduction.
He said: “They can see that the parents of our remaining schoolgirls have been wickedly forgotten and abandoned to their fate and left to grieve the loss of their children without any form of closure by the Federal Government. No serious government handles a matter like the still missing 112 schoolgirls of Chibok and Dapchi with the levity of an unending saga. The same manner of gross neglect and abandonment has also been extended to the parents of #LeahSharibu. We question the government’s silence on #LeahSharibu. We question government’s silence on the state of Alice Nggadah of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“Our movement has already done everything within the power of a citizens’ group to keep the government alert to its primary responsibility of securing the lives of the Nigerian people since 2014. Our persistent advocacy was to forewarn government of the consequences of sending the wrong signals on the value Nigeria places on the lives of our citizens.
“Today, abductions and kidnapping are rife, gruesome killings take place on repeat basis across the country and internally displaced persons (IDPs) are unable to rebuild their lives. That Nigeria has, since it failed our #Chibokgirls in 2014, degenerated to become a poster country for terrorist mayhem is the grandest shame of a nation.
“Today, our core demand remains the same, relevant today as it has been on each of the 1811 days that we have daily turned up at the Unity Fountain pressuring two consecutive Presidents of Nigeria to rescue the remaining 112 #ChibokGirls, Leah Sharibu, Alice and others. For as long as they remain in captivity, we of the #BBOG shall continue to carry them in our hearts and make our voices resound and re-echo our cries of five years.
“Mr President #BringBackOurGirls now and alive.”
A former Minister of Education and leader of the group, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, announced that she stepped down from the group when she went into politics to avoid conflict of interest.
The former minister urged the government to tell Nigerians if the case of the Chibok girls had been closed, based on what she called the evidence gathered.
She said: “Some people look at us and ask: have you resumed? I look at them like they don’t even get it. A person like me decided that demanding for good governance from a government that has no care to offer good governance has become a blunt instrument. So, I decided to go into politics. But consistent with the values of this organisation, as soon as I decided to go into politics, I stepped down because conflict of interest is a complete lack of integrity. Others can do it, but we cannot do it in the #BBOG.
“The sad thing is that the failure of successive governments to treat the Chibok matter with the effectiveness required laid the foundation for the emboldening of those who have continued to terroriee our country.
“So, whether it is what you find in Zamfara, Yobe, Borno, Plataea, among others, the terrorists became emboldened because our government failed to show that sense of the dignity of the Nigerian life.”
