#BringBackOurGirls Protests In Abuja; PDP Ruling Party Chieftan Questions Girls' Abduction

Apr. 30, 2014

Women in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, organized as “Women for Peace and Justice”, are staging a peaceful protest to press the government to act swiftly to release the remaining 230 female students kidnapped from their hostel in a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State.

About 273 girls, students of the Government Secondary School, GGSC, were abducted by members of the Boko Haram on April 14. Forty-three of the girls escaped captivity and reunited with their families. But the bulk of the students are still held by their abductors without much of a showing of tact to free the schoolgirls by the government.

The protesters have left the Unity Fountain start off venue and heading towards the Eagle Square where they are expected to turn into the National Assembly. The protest is gathering crowd as it proceeds.

The protesters are closely monitored by security agents, including the Police Commissioner of Abuja Police Command, Joseph Mbu. – PremiumTimes

Meanwhile:

PDP Chieftain Expresses Doubt Chibok School Girls Were Kidnapped, Asks “Who Saw It Happen?”

Mrs. Kema Chikwe, the National Women Leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today publicly questioned the story of the abduction of teenage school girls in Chibok, Borno State.

Speaking at a prayer session held for national security at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, Mrs. Chikwe said there were many unanswered questions concerning the kidnap.

Among them, according to her, are: “How did it happen? Who saw it happen? Who did not see it happen? Who is behind this?”

Towards obtaining answers, she demanded that the principal of the school should release the names and photographs of the abducted girls.

Mrs. Chikwe was tabling her controversial queries on the same day that many indigenes of Chibok, including anguished mothers seeking answers from the government, staged a public protest in Abuja to demand the immediate return of the girls, who were abducted by suspected Boko Haram insurgents over two weeks ago.

Converging at Eagle Square in the federal capital, the women, most of them members of the Kibaku Development Association in Chibok, marched to the National Assembly, where they submitted a grievance letter.

During her comments at the PDP Secretariat, Mrs. Chikwe to several of Nigeria’s security issues, including Boko Haram, kidnapping, and armed robbery.

“There is no newspaper that does not carry news of rape [sic] even babies,” she said. “There is hypocrisy about corruption among individual Nigerians.

“The last straw that broke the camel’s back was the kidnap of Chibok schoolgirls.”

She then went on to question whether the girls were actually abducted in the first place, suggesting a conspiracy scenario the PDP government has yet to speak about.

Mrs. Chikwe however described those behind the crimes as “lovers of darkness rather than light,” and called on God to touch their hearts.

Also speaking at the occasion, the chairperson, Senator Helen Esuene, stated that women are noted to stand for peace.

In comments that seemed to disagree with those of Mrs. Chikwe, she described women as the home builders, the ones who go through the pains of labour, and the ones who carry the children in their wombs.

“There is not much we can do than to pray because prayer is the answer to every problem”.

As the National Women Leader, Mrs. Chikwe is a central figure in the mainstream of the party. It is unclear if her comments today represent the thinking of the party or its government, which seems frozen in time about the abductions in Chibok.