BBOG group to storm villa again for Chibok girls

The Bringbackourgirls advocacy group says it will march to the presidential villa next Thursday to seek answers from President Muhammadu Buhari on why 219 Chibok schoolgirls have remained in captivity despite his promise to rescue them.

In a statement signed by Aisha Yesufu, Hadiza Bala Usman and Oby Ezekwesili, its coordinators, the group  flayed the president for declaring that Boko Haram had been technically defeated without the rescue of the Chibok schoolgirls.

“It was utterly shocking when the president declared in a BBC interview on 24 December that the terrorists had been ‘technically defeated’ without referencing the rescue of our Chibok girls whom he had set as the benchmark for measuring such success,” it said.

“We are extremely disappointed that seven months after his strong promise at inauguration and six months after his pledge to the parents, Chibok community and our movement that he would rescue the 219 daughters of Nigeria, his statement was lacking in urgency and assurance of strategy for result.

“Further, that the president gave the impression of a reactive approach of ‘waiting for credible Boko Haram leadership’ to tell us whether our girls are alive or not, falls disappointingly short of the proactive feedback we expected.

“Our movement therefore refuses to accept that lack of ‘credible intelligence on our girls’ whereabouts” as a tenable reason for the evident lack of progress in rescuing our ChibokGirls.”

“‎The federal government should investigate all statements preciously made by state actors and/or high-ranking military officers that ‘we know where the Chibok girls are’, with the view to getting at the bottom of the matter on our girls’ whereabouts.

“The federal government should immediately set up a search and rescue team to find our Chibok girls.
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“KADA (the Chibok community) strongly demands that President Muhammadu Buhari gives the rescue of our abducted Chibok girls the priority attention it deserves, as Boko Haram cannot be said to have been defeated – technically or otherwise – without the safe return of our abducted daughters.‎”

In July 2015, the citizen movement marched to the presidential villa where it restated its demand of a safe rescue of the schoolgirls to Buhari.

The president had assured the group and parents of the missing girls that he would do all he could to bring them back.