The BringBackOurGirls coalition has said it will resume its daily protest march to demand the return of the schoolgirls who were kidnapped from their school in Chibok in 2014. The group says it would be protesting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja from Tuesday, November 14, 2017.
The movement said that nothing had been heard from the federal government since 82 of the Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram were released in May, 2017.
The BBOG spokesman, Sesugh Akume, in a statement on Thursday, November 9, 2017 in Abuja, said it was now over 1,305 days since the abduction of the 113 girls that were still in custody of the insurgency group.
He explained that none of the commitments made by the government had been fulfilled, noting that President Muhammadu Buhari recently in his Independence Day broadcast on October 1 promised to ensure the release of the remaining girls, but this, the BBOG said, had not been done.
The group stated that it had on several occasions put on hold its march expecting to see the outcome of the commitments made by the government.
It added that it had yet to see evidence of any outcomes.
“Our movement therefore resumes daily marches to the State House, in order to refocus attention on the plight of our #ChibokGirls and all the incidences of abductions, killings, and general insecurity as well as the abysmally poor handling of the situations; to demand their immediate return,” the statement said.
A founder of the movement, Hadiza Usman, who is a member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari as the managing director of the Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA. The move was widely regarded as a reward for pushing the emotional negative narrative around the kidnapping of the Chibok girls against the Goodluck Jonathan administration during the 2015 campaigns.
Following backlash, Ms. Usman told journalists that she never denied being a member of the then, opposition APC party and was always a member even when starting the organisation which created “a strong emotional campaign in mobilising public sentiment against the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan”.
