In a bid to truncate another round of protests by parents and advocates for the release of the secondary schoolgirls abducted almost two years ago by the Islamic insurgents, Boko Haram, the Federal Government allegedly barred dozens of the girls’ parents travelling to Abuja for a march to Aso Rock to press home their demand tomorrow.

The planned day of the protest in Abuja marks the 640 days since the schoolgirls were herded out of their dormitories by the insurgents. The whereabouts of the remaining is still shrouded in mystery, a situation that informed President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement that he does not know where they are.

Sixty two of the parents, The AUTHORITY learnt, were not allowed to leave their village, Chibok on Tuesday. It took the intervention of former running mate to President Muhammadu Buhari, Pastor Tunde Bakare and one of the organisers of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) campaign, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, before four buses of the Chibok protesters were allowed to depart Chibok.

The restriction of the 62 protesters elicited reactions from some members of the BBOG who came out of a meeting in Abuja.

“How can they prevent the Chibok parents from coming to Abuja? It could have been me or anyone else. It could have been my sister or my daughter,”' a BBOG member said.

According to her, “The APC accused Goodluck Jonathan of not responding to the issue of the Chibok girls and they used it as a platform to win the election. They said Goodluck didn’t visit Chibok. He didn’t visit Biu. He didn’t visit Gwoza. He didn’t go to Sambisa. But has President Buhari visited any of those places?” the BBOG member asked.

It was gathered that the parents of the kidnapped girls who couldn’t travel to Abuja for the march included the chairman of the ensemble, Yakubu Keki.

“At around 7am Tuesday morning, Keki and others were stopped at Askira Uba by soldiers who told them that they couldn't proceed on their journey as a result of an order from above,” a source told the paper.

Another BBOG member who was irked by the development noted that: “Our colleagues visited the North East; is everything there fine? They have been writing about what they saw, pictures don’t lie; those things are not lies. They can’t tell us that they don’t have the credible information about our girls, those things are lies.

“This means some people are trying to lie to him (Buhari) and shield him from knowing the truth about some issues and we must cry out again. We must take away those people that don’t mean well for the Chibok girls because honestly, we are Nigerians and we believe in humanity and we must take it seriously,” she said.

Another member added that: “No one has the right to deny those parents the right to march to Aso Villa and demand for their daughters and I pray they don’t stop those parents from coming to Abuja to join this march on the 14th of January 2016. That will be the wrongest signal that this government will set for itself where the Chibok girls are involved.”

•Sourced from The AUTHORITY.

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