The leader of the BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) group and former minister for education, Dr (Mrs) Obiageli Ezekwesili, has said that no amount of harassment and intimidation can stop the group.
The former minister, while speaking at the annual public enlightenment lecture entitled “Good Governance and the Challenges of the African Child,” organised by the Dorcas Oke Hope Alive Initiative (DOHAL) in Ibadan, stated that government had done a lot to stop the campaign.
According to her, members of the group have been beaten on several occasions by agents of the government while others have been traumatised, harassed and intimidated.
She said, “As a citizen of this country, I have the voice and the right to demand and ask questions on some issues affecting not only the people of this country but also the poor masses.
“They have done everything to discourage us, but there is a cost we have to pay. We are determined; we are willing to pay the cost of a decent society”.
She said that if the Chibok girls who went to school and got abducted were children of the elite, they probably would have been found no matter what it takes.
The former minister who said she was never a politician added that the search for the girls had been politicised.
She said government had on several occasions erroneously informed Nigerians that the campaign to bring back the girls was being sponsored by the opposition.
She recalled that after two attacks on separate institutions without any resistance from the nation’s security agencies, the Boko Haram sect stormed the Chibok school and kidnapped 276 girls.
Out of the kidnapped girls, Ezekwesili disclosed that 57 escaped while 219 are still being held captive by their captors.
“If you think that Chibok school is far, it is not as far away as you think; it can happen in any school that your child attends.
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