(The #BringBackOurGirls Movement’s Reacts to Federal Government of Nigeria’s Non-Response to Its Post-Sambisa Visit Correspondence.)
Members of the press and the wider public may recall that our Movement had at the invitation of the Federal Government embarked on a Guided Tour of Sambisa Forest on 16th and 17th January, 2017. Upon the safe return of the four members of our movement who toured the forest and the benefit of knowledge and facts they gathered, we wrote a letter to the Federal Government.
In our letter dated January 23, 2017 (now attached to this Press Statement) we highlighted our key observations from our members’ visit to the war zone. Concluding on the basis of facts and evidence obtained from the Sambisa Forest tour, we conveyed a more pointed demand on the Federal Government to negotiate and bring back our remaining 185 ChibokGirls.
Curiously and in stark contrast to the exuberant fanfare with which the Federal Government extended its invitation to our movement for our letter conveying our message from the visit to the war zone has met with deafening silence. Since our letter was sent to the Federal Government over two months ago, our Movement has not received a reply from the Federal Government.
We consider it grossly objectionable that the Federal Government chose to be unresponsive to a letter that was addressed and delivered to the Minister of Information as well as copied and sent to the Vice President, the Chief of Staff of the President and the Minister of Defence.
It is for that reason that we have decided to adopt an open medium to communicate the content of that letter to the Federal Government. We waited long enough in the last two months following our return from Sambisa Forest. We hereby publish the letter in order to convey a strong message to the Federal Government that it cannot scuttle public scrutiny and demand for accountability on the status of the remaining 195 ChibokGirls. Our movement believes in the constitutional duty of government to be accountable and to provide answers to citizens on issues that affect them.
We request the rest of the Nigerian people and others around the world who have stood in empathy for the cause of our ChibokGirls to join our movement in prevailing on the Federal Government to act on our Demand.
The Federal Government owes the remaining 195 ChibokGirls, the Justice of immediate rescue. Let that be done before April 14. 2017. Three years is indefensible time for our young women to be left in terrorist captivity.
#BringBackOurGirlsNowAndAlive!
#MrPresident! #NoMoreExcuses!
#MrPresident! #NoMoreDelays!!
#MrPresident! #DecideNow!!!
#MrPresident! #ActNow!!!
#WeWantMoreResults!!!