Street protests for the release of the over 200 girls abducted from a school in Chibok, Borno State, have continued across the states in Nigeria, with Katsina, Adamawa, Plateau and Oyo leading yesterday’s protest.
In Katsina former secretary to the State government, Dr Mustapha Muhammad Inuwa, yesterday led hundreds of protesters on a peaceful protest march, calling for the rescue of the abducted Chibok girls.
Dr Inuwa, accompanied by his wife and two children, led protesters to march round major streets of Katsina municipal, with placards bearing different inscriptions demanding the urgent release of the abducted girls.
Speaking to newsmen, the former Katsina government scribe chided government for its poor handling of the current insecurity across the nation.
In Adamawa State, the wife of Adamawa State governor, Hajiya Zainab Nyako, alongside a pressure group, Women for Justice and Peace in Nigeria, yesterday took to the streets of Yola demanding the authorities to ensure the safe release of the abducted girls.
The women took their protests to the Government House, Yola, and Adamawa House of Assembly where they forwarded their protest letters, accusing the federal government of not doing enough to rescue the abducted girls.
While presenting their protest letter to the Chief of Staff Adamawa State Government House, Alhaji Abdurrahman Abba, who stood in for Governor Nyako, the protesters decried the conflicting information about the exact number of girls still in captivity and the generally poor operational strategy deployed in curbing the insecurity.
In her remark, while at the Government House Yola, Hajiya Nyako appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure the quick release of the girls as their continued stay in the hands of the insurgents was giving all Nigerian mothers sleepless nights.
The representative of the Women for Justice and Peace in Nigeria Mallama Turai A. A. Kadir, said they have every reason to suspect foul play from the lackadaisical attitude of the federal government towards the abduction saga asking the federal government to respond to their questions in respect of the abduction.
“Why despite the massive increase in security spending (up to N1 trillion in 2013 and N845billion in 2014) are Nigerians not safer while our security and military personnel are said to be under-equipped and ill-prepared to face the ever growing security challenges facing confronting Nigeria,” Kadir queried.
In Plateau Over 300 women yesterday staged a peaceful protest in Jos, the Plateau State capital, to demand the immediate return of the more than 200 female students abducted from In Chibok, Borno State.
The protesters, comprising Christian and Muslim women, walked from the airport base at the old airport junction in the city to the deputy governor’s office at Rayfield, Jos, where they presented a letter signed by Pastor Esther Ibanga of Women Without Walls Initiative, Hajiya Khadija Gambo Hawaja of Muslim Women Peace Forum and Mrs Elizabeth Rindams of Christian Women for Excellence and Empowerment in Nigerian Society.
Ibanga described sexual violation of minors as a heinous crime against the corporate existence of the nation, adding that the federal government must deploy all the necessary machinery at its disposal to provide security for its citizens.
