The women, dressed in black attire lamented the inability of the Federal Government to rescue the 234 schools girls who were writing their final examinations.
Armed with placards containing emotional inscriptions, the bewildered women expressed fears that the kidnapped girls may be undergoing varied forms of torture and molestation in the hands of their captors.
Some of the placards read: ‘Our girls in captivity for 15 days’; ‘Nigeria, come to the rescue of our girls’; ‘Mr President, rescue our daughters’; ‘A vacuum has been created’; ‘Save our daughters, please’; etc.
The leader of the obviously traumatised parents, Mrs. Naomi Mukhtar, said the essence of their visit to the National Assembly was to further draw global attention to their predicament.
She urged the leadership of the National Assembly to show sympathy for their plights by asking the Federal Government and the military authorities to ensure the immediate release of their daughters.
She said: “On behalf of mothers of the 234 girls, we are here to express our anger. Our grievance is that we are not aware of the whereabouts of these girls. Our girls have been distributed to hoodlums in the forest.
“It is painful that our daughters were carried away into the wilderness over 15 days now like cows to be slaughtered; since then, we have not heard anything from the Federal Government.
“Where are the human right groups in the country? Where is the Women Affairs Ministry? Is there no government in the country? Are there no fathers and mothers in government again to deem it fit to see the parents of the abducted school girls and tell us what is actually happening.
“If our children are dead, where are their bodies? Let us see their bodies. For the past two weeks, nobody has come to us, we are dying in silence, where is the international community? We need their assistance.”
Four Senators, Hellen Esuene, Zainab Kure, Barnabas Gemade and Ali Ndume, addressed the protesters on behalf of Senate President David Mark.
Ndume assured the women of the support and determination of the National Assembly to throw its full weight behind efforts by the Federal Government to ensure the safe rescue of the girls.
Ndume, who is also from Borno state said: “We have heard your cry, we are with you on the matter. At the moment, we are considering a motion on the subject matter.
“The Senate President sent the three of us to receive you. The Senate President has not slept over the matter. The very first motion upon resumption is the abduction.
We wish to assure you that this matter will be addressed by the Senate. Our thoughts and prayers go to all of you because we are with you. We stand united in grief with you in your hour of pain, agony and anxiety.
“We will do everything possible to make sure that the kidnappers release our daughters immediately, unconditionally.”
Minister of Women Affairs Mrs. Zainab Maina, urged them to remain prayerful as the Federal Government and the military authorities would ensure that the innocent girls were rescued and reunited with their parents. and collective resolve of Nigerians.”
Service chiefs to face
Reps over 234 girls
The House of Representatives yesterday resolved to summon the Chief of Defence State, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff and the Chief of Air Staff over the abduction of 234 female students from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.
The Service Chiefs are to brief the lawmakers on the efforts to find the abducted girls and the challenges hampering them from securing their freedom as well as strategies they intend to employ to bring the insurgency by the Boko Haram sect to an end.
They also urged t the Federal Government ” engage the sub-regional, regional and international organisations in coming up with a resolution that enables the Nigerian army engage other neighbouring countries in tackling the trans-border insurgency”.
The adoption of the resolutions was sequel to a motion of urgent national importance brought before the House by a member, Hon. Peter Gumta (Borno) and titled: “Urgent need to secure the release of the abducted girls of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State”
However, an amendment by a member Sadiq Asema Mohammed, seeking the resignation of the Service Chiefs, National Security Adviser, Director-General of State Security Service and Comptroller General of Immigrations should the children not be found within a week failed to sail through.
The motion elicited a passionate debate yesterday as the lawmakers bared their minds on what most to them termed as “an unfortunate incident.”
A member, Hon. Aisha Ahmed Moddibo was of the opinion that the efforts of the Chamber were a little too late. According to her, she expected that the House would have broken its Easter recess to convene an emergency meeting as it did in the past when it held a Sunday meeting over the fuel subsidy issue.
“The debate is belated. The House should have suspended recess to discuss the issue. This is even more important that the fuel subsidy issue because the lives of children are involved,” she said.
Gumtha, while moving the motion, said t 43 of the 273 students abducted by the Boko Haram sect, escaped on the midnight of 14/15 April 2014 and that two weeks after the incident 234 others are still being held captive by the insurgents in an unknown place.
He expressed displeasure over the misleading information from the security agencies that the adducted children had been rescued when they were not.
The lawmaker revealed that rescue efforts by the sector command at Damboa and Askira had been hindered by the neglected and untarred 50 kilometre long Mbalala-Chibok-Damboa federal road.
Farouk Lawan while supporting the motion urged members to spend 30 seconds to imagine that their daughters were amongst the children carted away by the insurgents.
Bitrus Kaze (Plateau State) said the Northeast is considered backwards in terms of education and that the abduction of over 200 girls from a school has dealt a deadly blow to education in the state.
He urged leaders to eschew media war and stop politicising the fight against terror. “We must act as leaders and save lives and property, we must conduct ourselves as leaders. We must stop the media war. We need Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin, we should ask for help.”
Hon. Momoh Abubarkar said there was need to seek international assistance but that first, the Federal Government should negotiate with the insurgents to free the abducted children.
Another member, Rasak Bello-Osagie, said the ongoing insurgency in the country is not checked could tear the nation apart.
“The issue threatens our corporate existence,” he said.
Andrew Uchendu said there is the need to go spiritual to avoid the Balkanization of the country in line with the prediction of the Western countries. “Parliament should close down for a day and we should all go down on our knees.”
According to him,” if care is not taken, the prediction that Nigeria will break in 2015 will come to pass.”
Samson Osagie described the situation as ” a hopeless situation. It is a breakdown of government. Government must retrieve these children. If children of the 360 members are amongst, we will not be sitting here.”
Hon. Garuba Datti Mohammed said there is no political will to defeat the terrorists, adding that in spite of the state of emergency.
Other members, who spoke in support of the motion include Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi, Robinson Uwak, Ifeoluwa Arewosoge, Patrick Ikheriale, Friday Itulah and Nnena Elendu-Ukeje whose amendment that ” engage the sub-regional, regional and international organizations in coming up with a resolution that enables the Nigerian army engage other neighbouring countries in tackling the trans-border insurgency, was passed.
Source: The Nation
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