Women’s mass rally in capital demands government try to ‘return’ them to families
Sources say
that some of the 230 school girls abducted from
Nigeria’s North-Eastern town of Chibok more than two weeks ago have been
transferred to neighboring Cameroon and Chad.
Some villagers near the Nigeria-Cameroon border indicate that they have
seen girls on board
buses heading to Cameroon. Other reports given to the
BBC say a ‘bridegroom’ of a girl has been spotted: a bride price of
2000 Naira ($12.50) has been quoted. A local source in Cameroon told
World Watch Monitor he
confirms similar reports.
Hundreds of people, mostly women, marched to the National
Assembly in Abuja; the capital of Nigeria. The demonstrators handed a
letter to the President of the Senate calling on the government to do
more to
secure the release of the schools girls abducted by suspected Boko
Haram militants.
The President of Senate, David Mark, addressed the crowd and promised to look in to their demands..
The rally organisers, a new
movement “Women for Peace and Justice” calls for the Nigerian government
to mobilise every resource to bring back the girls.
The semi-desert north of
Cameroon has
become a
safe haven for Boko Haram militants operating in Nigeria.
On April 4, a Canadian
nun and two Italian priests were
kidnapped after
a group of armed men stormed their small parish and ransacked church
buildings before heading toward Mora, near the Nigeria border.
Reports of the transfer of
schoolgirls were also confirmed by a
member the Chibok Elders Forum.
Dr. Pogu Bitrus told the BBC that some of the teenage girls had been spotted being taken in lorries and canoes across the borders into Cameroon and
Chad.
On
April 14 Boko Haram militants stormed Chibok Girls Government Secondary School in the night
where they
overpowered the security guards before herding at least 230 of the
female students onto trucks, and drove the girls (who were between the
ages of 16 and 20) deep into the nearby Sambisa forest.
Since then, only about 40 of them have managed to
escape.
Chibok is a Christian enclave
in the predominantly Muslim Borno State, in North-Eastern Nigeria and
most of the affected families are members of EYN Church (Church of the
Brethren). So for
many, the abduction of the schools girls is an attack against
Christians.
‘‘Such an attack where girls
were taken away has never taken place. Even recently when they [Boko
Haram militants] attacked a Federal Government College in Buni Yadi, the
boys were killed but
the girls were told to go away and leave the school. They never took
them away. This is the first time they are taking such a number of girls
in a school. So we are assuming they did so because most of the girls
are Christians’’ says a local church leader,
whose identity could not be disclosed for security reasons.
The massive abduction of school girls has plunged Africa’s most populous
nation into deep outrage. On Thursday, President Goodluck Jonathan, who
has been blamed for his indifference over the agony of Chibok’s
families, chaired a
National Security Council (NSC) meeting (extended to include State governors, security chiefs and spiritual leaders) in Abuja.
The Security Council tasked the Nigerian military
to rescue the abducted schoolgirls. But many of the affected parents
are very sceptical about the role of the army, already accused of not doing enough to rescue the missing girls.
Contacted by the BBC over the claims that the abducted
girls have been taken to neighbouring Cameroon or Chad, the spokesman of
Nigeria’s defence headquarters, Major General Chris Olukolade, declined
to comment
but said:
“The concern and anxiety from all quarters is quite
understandable. Please be assured that much as the forces may not
disclose details of action being taken to secure the freedom of the
girls, all information
received on the subject is duly analysed and acted upon as necessary.
No information is being ignored in the concerted effort to ensure the
safety and freedom of the girls. Just pray for the successful outcome of
all the efforts please.”
Last Thursday, April 24,
Nigeria’s largest church network,
the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) called
for prayer and fasting for the safe release of the some 230 teenage school girls.
The local chapter of the CAN in Borno State (where the girls were abducted) also decreed three days of prayer and fasting.
Source:World Watch Monitor
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