ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – The Nigerian Military has clarified that they did not detain 65 parents of the abducted Chibok girls who were on their way to Abuja from Borno State to participate in the protest of the #BringBackoOurGirls (BBOG) movement scheduled for Thursday
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Speaking to Sundiata Poston the development on Wednesday the Media Coordinator, Operation Lafiya Dole, Col. Mustapha Anka, said that it was an issue of wrong communication on the side of the Chibok parents before embarking on the journey.
Anka explained that issue was quickly resolved and the were parents escorted by the military and security agents to Abuja.
According to him, the parents embarked on the journey without communicating with the security agencies and have to be interrogated to know who they were before being allowed to finally embark on their journey.
He said: “The problem was from their part because they did not inform the military and other security agencies about their planned journey.
“And you are aware of the security situation in the area as the soldiers seeing a group of people, they have to ask questions and inquire what their mission was and their destination.”
“It was in the process of doing this that some of the parents became apprehensive and started making calls here and there causing more misunderstanding. The issue was, however, resolved and they were escorted by the security agents to Abuja”, he explained.
A member of the BBOG strategic team and spokesman, Tunji Olanrewaju, had on Wednesday alerted Sundiata Post that 65 parents were stopped at Askira, near Chibok, in Borno State by soldiers acting on “orders from above.”
Olanrewaju was quoted to have said: “Over 120 of them (Chibok parents) were supposed to come for the march on Thursday.
“So they were leaving Chibok this morning because it is a two-day trip. They set out at 7a.m. – about 64 or 65 of them – in several buses, but they were stopped at Askira by soldiers.
“Initially, they said the order was from Maiduguri, but later they said it was from above.”
He added that a first batch of the Chibok parents had already left for Abuja before the 65 parents were stopped.
Olanrewaju said that the BBOG citizen movement was scheduled for Thursday to re-engage with President Muhammadu Buhari on the reason why 219 Chibok schoolgirls have remained in captivity despite his promise to rescue them.
He noted that this will be the group’s second “engagement” with the president. The first was in July 2015, two months after he was sworn in.
