Fear, anger over Shekau video about abducted girls

The parents of the abducted students of Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State are restless over the release of a video by the Boko Haram sect who threatened to sell the girls.

The abduction of the girls have caused outrage all over the world as people condemned the act. The girls were snatched away from their hotels on the 15 of April, 2014.

The leader of the sect, Abubakar Shekau, in a new video made avaibale to the media (NOT NAIJA CENTER NEWS) took responsibility of the abuction, adding that he would sell them in the market.

Shekau said:  “I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah.” Shekau added that the abduction had caused outrage “because we are holding people [as] slaves”.

“There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women,” he continued, according to a CNN translation from the local Hausa language. Boko Haram is a terrorist group receiving training from al Qaeda affiliates, according to United States (U.S.) officials.

Its name means “Western education is sin.” In his nearly hourlong, rambling video, Shekau repeatedly called for Western education to end. “Girls, you should go and get married,” he said.

Barely a few hours after Boko Haram admitted custody of the 276 (police figure) abducted school girls, security agencies and chiefs met yesterday to analyse the video clip purportedly released by Shekau. Troops were ordered to go ahead with their search for the girls. Also, troops have been mobilised to Sambisa Forest and identifiable border towns in Chad and Cameroon where the girls may have been kept by Boko Haram.

A top security source, last night, said: “Security agencies got the video clip very early in the day and all military chiefs have been analysing it. “While we have some technical reservations with the video clip, the security agencies and their leaders resolved that the search and rescue operations for the girls by the troops should continue.

“The immediate conclusion of the military and security agencies was that the video might have been released by the sect to drive fear into Nigerians and divert attention in order to relocate the girls into safe passage. “Although we suspect the video message as an element of propaganda, we will not ignore it in any manner.”

The source said the video clip would not stop the operations for the rescue of the girls. Said the source: “As I am talking to you, troops have been ordered to continue with the search and rescue operations for the abducted girls. “Also, troops have been deployed in Sambisa Forest and strategic border towns with Chad and Cameroon.

“The troops have been asked to block all likely passage channels through which the girls could be relocated elsewhere.” Responding to a question,

the source added: “All security agencies in neighbouring countries are already collaborating with us to locate the whereabouts of these girls.

“Foreign intelligence agencies are also surveying movements in and out of some suspected terrorist enclaves in some countries.

“I think we are closer to a global search for the girls because many countries are sharing intelligence information with Nigeria.”

In Lagos thousands of women marched on  Governor Babatunde Fashola’s office  to call for the girls’ release. In the protest, organised by Women for Peace and Justice in Nigeria, Lagos State Chapter, were various civil society coalition groups, accompanied by their male counterparts, including rights activists-lawyer Femi Falana (SAN). They were dressed in red. The protest began at about 9am at Allen Roundabout, Awolowo. The protesters were armed with placards some of which read: “Bring back our girls”;

“Our future leaders are missing, bring them back”; “Chad, Cameroon and Niger, stop enabling criminals”; “We want our girls back alive”; “Save innocent girls”; “Enough is Enough”; “234 girls, Haba!”; and “FGN, free the Chibok Girls”; among others.

There was a traffic gridlock on Obafemi Awolowo Way as the protesters marched on, singing and demanding the girls’ release. Speaking on behalf of the protesters, former Attorney General of Lagos State Justice Wonu Folami (rtd) said the protesters were at the State House to express their grievances over the abduction of the girls. She said: “Our children have been brutally murdered. Over 200 girls are kidnapped; this is very sad, that nothing is being done about it. It is sad that the government does not even know the number of girls that are missing.

“We want security to be redoubled immediately. We want them back alive and without them, there can be no tomorrow. Fashola should double his effort to provide security in Lagos State as there are insinuations that they might strike here.

” Falana said: “We demand on the part of the government immediate rescue operation of these girls so that that they can join their parents. We urge the Lagos State government to help convey this message to the Federal Government. Until these girls are released, we cannot give the government any pass mark. We want the government to re-double its efforts so that these girls can be returned to their parents.

We call on the government to deploy all military forces in Nigeria to collaborate with the international organisations and countries that have gone through this before to ensure the freedom of these abducted girls.

Falana condemned the arrest of some protesters in Abuja. Receiving the protesters, Deputy Governor Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire said the state government would work with the Federal Government to ensure the girls’ release, adding that it is disheartening to hear that 234 girls were kidnapped.

“We are pained, as mothers, for this to be happening to our girls. We will do our best to ensure that they are released. All of us should pray and fast for the release of these children because we believe God can do it.

“From tomorrow, Lagosians can observe three days fasting and prayer for the release of these girls. We need divine intervention. Let us lend our voices to God to release these children,” she said.

Speaking for the protesters, Aisha Oyebode, wife of frontline lawyer-businessman Gbenga Oyebode, said the essence of the protest was that the women wanted the girls returned unharmed. She said it was the responsibility of the government to ensure that they were rescued and brought back home immediately.

“The longer it takes to rescue our girls, the greater the dangers they are exposed to. The lack of action is unacceptable, the growing insecurity is worrisome and we as Nigerians demand an immediate and complete end to the politicisation of insecurity in this country,”

Mrs Oyebode, daughter of the late Gen. Murtala Muhammed, said. In Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s wife, Bola, and Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s wife, Olufunso, joined hundreds of women to march over the girls’ abduction.

The protest, which began around 8am at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Kuto,took the women through IBB Boulevard and terminated at the Ogun State House of Assembly complex, the Governor’s Office, Oke-Mosan, where Mrs Amosun presented their protest letter to Speaker Suraj Adekunbi for delivery to the National Assembly.

They also marched on Amosun’s office, demanding action from the Federal Government as well as  unconditional and safe release of the girls. Mrs Amosun, who spoke on behalf of the women,  presented a letter to the governor for delivery to President Jonathan, pleading with him to help set the innocent girls free.

Also participating in the protest march are the Iyalode of Yorubaland, Chief Alaba Lawson, members of the  International Federation of Women Lawyers, trader, artisans, among others.

The women, who deplored the abduction of the girls and likely pains they could be passing through, displayed  placards bearing various inscriptions: “Kidnapped school girls must be found”; “Our girls are not sex machine”; “Bring back our girls”, “Haba! this is barbaric in the 21st century”, and “Let all our women rise to save our girls”. At the Ogun Assembly complex, the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Elizabeth Sonubi, who addressed the lawmakers, called on the states and National Assembly members to take action towards freeing the girls.

Mrs. Sonubi also urged President Goodluck Jonathan to help release the girls. Thousands of secondary schools girls in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, protested yesterday to demand unconditional release of the abducted Chibok girls. The girls, dressed in black, from various secondary schools, marched through major streets in Calabar, with placards that read: “Bring back our little sisters”,

“Our girls are future mothers, free our daughters”, “Dialogue is the best option, not kidnapping of girls”, “Why use women as tools for negotiation”; “We need a safe and secure Nigeria, not abduction of girls” and “Free our girls, stop bombing and let’s talk”; among others.

They were joined in the protest by members of the National Association of Cross River Students (NACRISS), Civil Society and Non-Governmental organisations in the state. Some of the pupils said they were concerned about the plight of the abducted girls whose fate remains unknown. They urged the Federal Government to ensure the release of the girls urgently.

“The victims and their parents should be saved the trauma they are passing through. These innocent girls should not be made sacrificial lambs. “Today, it is students of Chibok Secondary School, tomorrow some other persons may be affected,” one of the Mary said.

The co-ordinator, Basic Rights Counsel Initiative (a civil society organisation), Comrade James Ibor who also participated in the protest march, said the safety of lives and property should be given priority by the government. Comrade Ibor said: “The government must not abdicate its responsibility of guaranteeing the security of lives and property.”

Comrade Nse Paulinus, National Coordinator of Democratic Action League, praised the pupils for embarking on the protest. “These are the friends of the girls in captivity. The government should listen to their cry and ensure the kidnapped girls are released safely,” he said.

The Deputy Coordinator of Girls’ Power Initiative (GPI), a Calabar non-governmental organisation (NGO), Mrs. Ndodoye Basey-Obongha also called for the unconditional release of the abducted girls.

“We join our voices with the parents of the affected girls and all other well-meaning Nigerians to urge the Boko Haram sect to immediately release the abducted girls in the interest of humanity,” she said

Fear, anger over Shekau video about abducted girls