One hundred days after the Chibok schoolgirls were abducted by the Boko Haram Islamic sect, hundreds of activists, religious leaders on Wednesday
staged a rally in Lagos demanding the release of the over 200 still in captivity.
About 276 girls were abducted from their school in Chibok, Borno State, on April 15 by the terrorist group, but some of them escaped from their abductors.
The Lagos rally organised by Women Arise Initiative and allied groups held at Alausa near the Lagos State House of Assembly complex with protesters lamenting that 100 days in captivity by the young girls was enough trauma, urging the Federal Government to act faster.
At the rally, Christian and Muslim clerics offered prayers for the safe return of the girls from Boko Haram’s den.
The activists accompanied by hundreds of children carried various placards with the inscriptions, ‘Punish the criminals,’ ‘Fish out the beast,’ ‘Stone age gone,’ ‘Stop the killing,’ ‘Chibok girls are human beings not numbers,’ among others.
Speaking at the rally, president, Women Arise Initiative and Campaign for Democracy (CD), Joe Okei-Odumakin, said, “We wish to register our keenness and undying desire to have the girls back. We have not lost steam in this regard, and we shall not until the innocent girls are brought home.
“We want to impress it on all Nigerians, across partisan divides, that this responsibility is a collective one. We should not even think of dumping this at the doorstep of security alone.
We should be careful of tapping political mileage out of this crucial quest. Or, at least, the politicians could be left to play their game while the rest of us bond to work from the points of reasonable pressure on government, the point of prayer, information, and any other positive force we could bring to bear on this unfortunate situation.”
