#BringBackOurGirls: Akure Civil Society Groups Request Immediate Action On Chibok Girls

As the days goes by different groups are all standing up to show their concern for the recent kidnapping of the Chibok Girls. Dressed in black clothing, dozens of women from civil society groups rallied in Akure, Ondo State capital today, demanding government intensify its efforts to rescue the kidnapped schools girls.

The group marched to the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, and rallied on the street waving placards that read “Bring back Our Girls,” Chibok kidnap is a disaster,” ‘Release our future mothers,” and “Our hearts are bleeding for our Kidnapped Daughters,” while chanting songs of solidarity.

Kikelomo Adeniyi, chairperson of the Nigeria Council of Women Society in Ondo State told the Commissioner, Lady Yemi-Mamud Fasominu, that all the women in the state, and beyond, were joining together to condemn the ‘barbaric act’ of kidnapping.

She said, “…the Ondo State women are not happy over the forceful abduction of these innocent girls. We are not happy because we feel the pains and might not probably know what they have been going through in the hands of their wicked abductors.”

She added that government should intensify all its effort at ensuring the girls are rescued alive, without harm, as their parents could no longer sleep or bear the incident.

Tope Fauyi, Chairperson of the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) in Ondo State said the protest should be a wake up call to the federal government to make its intelligence and operation units stronger in order to rescue the girls from their abductors.

She said, “We are all mothers and we felt the pains most. We are all concern about the whereabouts of our girls in the hands of these heartless abductors. Our voice should be heard across the nooks and crannies of the state, the country and even beyond. This is a collective struggle and fight for the immediate release of our girls who were in the school to do nothing but learn.

On April 15, 234 school girls were kidnapped by suspected Boko Haram insurgents while attending a village school in Chibok, Borno State to do their final exam. Boko Haram pretended the school was under threat from attack and helped escort them out of the school then kidnapped them. As schools in the state were closed because of raids by Boko Haram, girls from several different villages had traveled to the village school. Since then 53 girls have escaped but the Nigerian government has been slow to act.

The women then marched to the Alagbaka Office of the Governor in Akure. The State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Lady Yemi-Mamud Fasominu speaking on behalf of the women asked for immediate release of the school girls.

Fasominu asked why the Nigerian military deployed to the state to fight terrorism are still finding it difficult to expose and locate where the young girls are being held. She said many of the women are concerned about the state and condition of the missing girls.

The Commissioner also called for more security surveillance across the states of the country and urged mothers to keep watch over their children especially the females as there seemed to be no end to the perennial security challenges facing the country.

In response Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko assured the women the government is doing everything humanly possible to ensure the release of the abducted girls adding, “We should know that it is difficult to fight the enemies within because it is a guerrilla war not conventional one.”
He added, “The people perpetuating this dastardly acts in this country are trying all means to accomplish their aims but this particular act of taking our girls hostage has taken away something from our collective humanity.”

Akure Youth For Change is also joining the call for the immediate rescue of the schools girls. In a statement released today the President of AYFC, Ibrahim Adebayo said government should ensure security agencies in the troubled northern states are strengthened to fight the problem of terrorism.

And added the abduction of the over 200 female girls was nothing but a ‘national embarrassment’ to Nigerians’ as whole, and the federal government has failed in its responsibilities in providing adequate security for the citizens of the country.

He said all Nigeria youth will not hesitate to “Occupy the whole street of the federal capital territory” to demand and put pressure on the government to act speedily.