A new group calling on the Boko Haram sect to release the girls besieged the Unity Fountain in Abuja on Wednesday to protest the abduction of the over 200 girls abducted by members for the sect on April 14.
The new group, made up of market women and young men, arrived at the venue on Wednesday shouting; “Boko Haram, release our girls”, a different slogan from the usual “Bring Back Our Girls”.
But one of the conveners of the ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ campaign that had been protesting for over 27 days now, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, said that they were at the venue to disrupt the activities of her group.
She said that the new group members came in a bus and had turned the Unity Fountain into a joke.
“Some of them said they were paid to come and disrupt our meeting and that is a shame. This is what our own government has decided to do in response to the abduction of the girls. Isn’t that a shame.
“Yesterday they did everything to provoke our meeting but we will not be provoked. We will continue to stand in solidarity with the Chibok girls and call for their release. The constitution requires that the President as the Commander in Chief should be the one leading the security efforts to bring back our girls. The fastest way to end the Bring Back Our Girls’ campaign is to Bring Back Our Girls.
“Most of the Chibok girls abducted are from poor families. We stand here for the weak and the vulnerable. If you look among the women you will see the weak and the vulnerable bought to disrupt our protest. This is so debasing.
“What if their children were among the abducted will they do the same thing? She asked.
The Nigerian government had told the Bring Back Our Girls campaigners to direct their protest to the Boko Haram group the lat time they were at the Presidential Villa to demand for more drastic actions from the government in order to rescue the girls.
