Parents of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped have urged the Nigerian government to confirm if their daughters are already dead, and hand over their bodies for burial.
The solemn call came Friday, more than four months after armed insurgents stormed Government Secondary School in Chibok, loaded more than 200 girls on to trucks, and drove them away in the dead of the night. According to the heartbroken parents, they would rather welcome such news and prepare for the funeral than wait endlessly for update on the fate of their children abducted by Boko Haram April 14.
On Friday, marking 130 day of the girls’ abduction, over 50 protesters marched from the Unity Fountain to the National Secretariat demanding that the girls be returned alive. The demonstrators distributed flyers and stickers. They chanted:
“What are we demanding for? Bring our girls back and alive” as they marched.
One of the leaders of the march, Hadiza Bala-Usman, told PREMIUM TIMES:
“The parents said they would rather know that theirs daughters are dead and their bodies brought back and buried so as to put an end to this endless wondering about the status of their children. They are calling on the Federal Government to help them search for the bodies of their children; that’s if they are dead. It’s better for them to know that their kids are dead and the bodies are brought back.”
An official of the Centre for Democracy and Development, Jibrin Ibrahim, who was also at the protest ground, told PREMIUM TIMES that the march was to remind the Federal Government of its responsibilities. Mr. Ibrahim said:
“Today is 130 days since the abduction of the girls. Since they were abducted, our government promised us swift action, to search and rescue them; that, has not happened. We are therefore out on the street to remind the government that they have a responsibility to rescue these girls and return them to their parents and homes.”
We quickly forget things and events in this country. But this particular incident, we say no - we will never forget. We will never move on from it.
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