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ABUJA. — Nigerian protesters marched on parliament yesterday to demand the government and military do more to rescue scores of schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram Islamists more than two weeks ago. Dubbed “a million woman march” and promoted on Twitter under #BringBackOurGirls, the protest was not expected to draw a massive crowd and turn-out was hindered by heavy rain in the capital Abuja.
But several hundred women and men, mostly dressed in red, marched through the rain towards the National Assembly carrying placards that read “Find Our Daughters.”
Protest organiser Hadiza Bala Usman had earlier told AFP that the size of the protest was less important than raising awareness about the plight of the hostages whose April 14 abduction at gunpoint from their school in the northeast has outraged Africa’s most populous nation.
“The government has to understand that we are not going to allow this silence to continue,” Usman said.
In the northern city of Kano, roughly 100 people dressed in black marched towards the state governor’s office, calling for the girls’ immediate release.
The mass kidnapping in the Chibok area of north-eastern Borno state was one of the most shocking attacks in Boko Haram’s five-year extremist uprising, which has killed thousands across the north and centre of the country.
Borno’s government said 129 girls were taken and that 52 have since escaped.
Locals, including the principal at the targeted Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, have rejected those figures, claiming that 230 teenage students were taken and that 187 are still being held hostage.
The leader of Chibok’s elders forum, Pogu Bitrus, told AFP that he had received information indicating the girls were trafficked into neighbouring Cameroon and Chad and sold as brides to insurgents for 2 000 naira (US$12).
There was however, no independent confirmation of this report.
Parents have voiced fury at the military’s apparent rescue operation, accusing the security services of ignoring their daughters’ plight.
Former World Bank vice president Obiageli Ezekwesili, also an ex-Nigerian cabinet member, has emerged as a leader of the #BringBackOurGirls movement and addressed protesters at Unity Fountain in Abuja as the march kicked off.
She accused the military of having “no coherent search-and-rescue” plan.
“We are going to the National Assembly because that is where each of these girls has a representative,” she said. — AFP.
Online Reporter