Oby Ezekwesili addressing the BBOG group

The Bring Back Our Girls group was on Monday prevented from marching to the Aso Villa, where they had planned to demand an update from President Muhammadu Buhari on efforts to rescue the Chibok school girls kidnapped by Boko Haram 800 days ago.

The group had taken off from the Unity Fountain in Abuja but was halted at the Independence avenue by a combined team of policemen and men of the Department of State Services, numbering about 60.

Co-convener of the group and former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, told the police that they had come to see the President, insisting that he should be answerable to Nigerians who elected him into office.

But the team of security agents, led by Chuks Obasi, a Chief Superintendent of Police, said they were acting under strict orders not to allow the protesting group beyond the independence avenue.

Obasi said, “Well, I have my mandate and my mandate is to ensure that the protest does not assume a violent dimension.”

The protesters therefore resorted to sitting on the road and playing protest music.

Last week, the Boko Haram terrorist group released a video showing some of the abducted girls, and demanding that the federal government released their fighters that are being held by the country’s security agents in exchange.

The video also showed the dead bodies of some people whom the terrorists claimed were some of the abducted chibok girls that were killed when the military attacked the terrorists with a fighter jet.

One of the girls, who gave her name as Maida Yakubu, also begged the government to accede to the terrorists demands so that they would regain their freedom.

Since the video was released, the BBOG group has intensified their daily sit-outs at the Unity Fountain, urging the government to do everything possible to rescue the girls.