Aggrieved mothers and other indigenes of Chibok, Borno State, today in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, staged a protest to demand the immediate rescue or release of the more than 200 secondary school girls abducted by suspected Boko Haram insurgents on April 14.
The protesters, most of them members of the Kibaku Development Association, Chibok, converged at Eagle Square in Nigeria’s capital. From there, they marched to the National Assembly to submit a protest letter. The women were led into the premises of the national legislature by a group of senior female police officers.
Senators Barnabas Gemade and Helen Esuene received the protesters, telling them that the Senate was considering a motion in relation to the abducted girls. The two senators assured that the content of the Senate’s resolution would be communicated to the women later today. The senators appealed to the protesters to calm down and show restraint, pledging that everything would be done to secure the release of the girls in due course.
Some of the protesting women, who were all dressed in black, seemed unimpressed by the senators’ tepid words. A number of the women betrayed their emotion and wept profusely, a few of them rolling on the ground.
Some sources in the state have told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that some of the abducted girls had been ferried across into Chad where they were being married off for 2000 naira per girl. SaharaReporters spoke to a security source in Borno State who said he could not confirm the information.