PARENTS OF CHIBOK GIRLS IN BOKO HARAM CAPTIVITY BEGS OBASANJO TO HELP TALK TO WORLD LEADERS

‘On February 25, 2014, Boko Haram terrorists attacked Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Yobe State and killed 59 male students in cold blood. To date, their families have not recovered, and no one has even been arrested for the crime’.

‘Barely two months later on April 14, 2014, the same terrorists invaded Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State and abducted 276 female students, our children.  While over 100 of the Chibok girls either escaped or were released through negotiation, 112 of our daughters remain in the clutches of the terrorists. There has only been one conviction in 2018’.

‘In May 2017, six students of the Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, Epe, Lagos State were kidnapped and only released after 65 days of trauma for the students and their families. Only recently, on Feb 19, 2018, 110 students of the Government Girls’ Science Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State were kidnapped and held for 31 days.  5 girls tragically lost their lives, and one girl remains in captivity’.

‘We empathise with the traumatized parents of the returned girls, the deceased girls, and the Leah Sharibu’s parents.  Sadly, we are intimately familiar, with what they are experiencing now.  Twenty one days from now on April 14th, 2018 it will be exactly 4 years since our children were forcibly removed from the school where we thought they would be safe’.

‘We are glad that our solidarity visit to Dapchi on Wednesday 21st March, coincided with the safe return of 105 girls and one boy.  We pray that others will also be there to share in our own joy when our girls come back home.We call on national, regional and global influencers and authorities to support the Nigerian government to bring our nightmare to an end, and to take measures so that we can send our remaining children to school with peace of mind, and give them an opportunity for a better future’.

We thank President Obasanjo for inviting us to sit with him and benefit from his advice and counsel.  They say that it takes a village to raise a child; we call on our entire nation to pray for us and our daughters, to work together with the government, and use whatever contacts and resources you have to urgently bring our girls home safely before’.