Officers of the Nigerian police force on Friday prevented parents of the abducted Chibok school girls from entering the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja to protest their daughters’ continued stay in Boko Haram captivity.
The women had marched to the presidential villa from Transcorp Hotel, Abuja, venue for the inaugural annual Chibok Girls’ lecture.
They insisted on seeing President Muhammadu Buhari to demand the whereabouts of their daughters, but the policemen attached to the villa barricaded the premises and refused the protesters entry into the villa.
“If you give me my baby now, I will go back,” Esther Yakubu, one of the mothers, shouted at one of the policemen.
An officer spoke to the women in a calm voice, asking them to exercise patience.
“Which patience do you want me to exercise?” One of the women fired back.
“He (Buhari) is celebrating the graduation of his own children, I also want to celebrate the graduation of my children.
“When a similar incident happened in Lagos, they rescued them because they are children of rich men.
“I want to talk to the president myself as a mother. My daughter is still in captivity, I can’t leave without seeing the president today.”
A similar incident was also reported in Lagos State on Thursday when a team of policemen prevented some women protesters from entering the government house to urge Governor Akinwumi Ambode to lend his voice to the call for the rescue of the girls.
Series of activities had been lined up by the Bring Back our Girls, BBOG campaign group to draw more attention to the Chibok Girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram Terrorists from their school in Chibok, Borno State, on April 14, 2014.
The girls are yet to be rescued even though the Nigerian military says it has captured the Sambisa Forest which is believed to be the terrorists’ major stronghold.