A leader of the Chibok community in Abuja, Dr. Manasseh Allen has said that 2000 days after the abduction of the Chibok girls, parents of the remaining girls that are yet to be released still do not know what the government is going to secure the release of their daughters.
He said that the government had assured the parents that their remaining daughters will be brought back immediately after the last 82 were brought back but the parents have not heard from them again.
Allen said this Saturday in Abuja while members of the #BringBackOurGirls advocacy held a sit-out marking day 2000 of the abduction.
He said, “2000 days later we are still here demanding for the rescue of the remaining Chibok girls and others that have been abducted in other attacks, we have waited for action and an end to the insurgency but all we see is increase in violence and activities of the insurgents. Girls are still not back to school, the Chibok school has not been rebuilt five years after it was initially burnt down.
“Till today the Chibok parents do not still know what the government is doing exactly to get their girls back, nobody is talking to them, the Chibok girls desk in the Ministry of Women Affairs is laying dormant nobody knows ehat exactly they are doing. As of today, vertically twenty-five of the Chibok girls parents have died, nobody cares to know how the rest of the family is doing and what the message coming to government from them is. It is very unfortunate that this is where we are 2000 days after.
“After the last badge was released the government had made a promise to the remaining parents that they were going to get the girls back immediately, not too long from when the last 82 where rescued, so what exactly is happening?”
Members of #BBOG in a statement signed by Florence Ozor, Gapani Yanga, Nifemi Onifade and read at the sit out accused the government of being at ease amidst trouble in the land.
They stated, “Today, Saturday, October 5th 2019 marks 2,000 days since 276 schoolgirls were abducted from Government Girls’ Secondary School Chibok, Borno State, Nigeria by terrorists on the night of April 14 2014. 57 girls escaped within days of the abduction while 219 remained in captivity. Five years on, an additional 107 girls have returned: 4 of them as a result of Nigerian military interventions, 21 released in October 2016 after negotiations with their captors and a further 82 set free by the terrorist group in May 2017. 2,000 days later, 112 of the #ChibokGirls abducted during an evil attack on humanity are yet to return.
“Over the past 2,000 days, our #ChibokGirls have been denied their fundamental rights to freedom. For simply seeking an education on the path of growth and fulfilment, they have been forced to suffer unimaginable horrors by enemies of humanity. Their families and communities have also borne severe hardships within a war that continues to destroy lives and impede human progress. This nightmare continues to be the shame of a Nation and an open sore of the world that threatens to become ingrained within the darkest parts of our collective history.
“Amidst these tragic circumstances, the reality is one in which the #ChibokGirls are supposedly represented by a government that repeatedly fails in its primary responsibility of the protection of lives. Disturbingly, the government appears to be at ease amidst the troubles of the land, only concerned about protecting a fake-reputation that offers its citizens no value.
“To highlight this, we note with heartbreaking dismay, the incapacity, apathy and failed leadership displayed by the President and the Federal Government in the wake of the abduction of 6 students and 2 staff members of Engravers College in Kaduna on the 3rd of October 2019. This continues a distressing pattern of a failure to secure, preserve and dignify the lives of citizens.
“To this end, the students and staff of Engravers College join a number of citizens who remain missing – including Leah Sharibu, Alice Ngaddah, Grace Taku and her colleagues as well as many others. How can we have continued this way?”
