Concerned parents of Chibok schoolgirls have appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to help facilitate the release of 92 abducted girls still in Boko Haram’s captivity.
The parents appealed in a letter they jointly issued yesterday through Yana Galang (mother to Rifkatu Galang still in captivity) and Zanna Lawan (father to Aisha Lawan still in captivity).
They also congratulated President Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima on their assumption of office on 29 May.
The concerned parents begged the President to help in releasing the remaining schoolgirls still in captivity.
“Mr President, as you are well aware, our predicament started in 2014 when 276 of our daughters from Chibok Government Secondary School were abducted.
“It has been years of pain and agony for us and we are disheartened that nine years later and a few months before the end of the immediate past administration, 92 of these girls remain in Boko Haram captivity, subjected to unimaginable ordeal and abuse at the hands of their captors,” the parents said.
In the letter, the parents acknowledged that President Tinubu in his inaugural speech, despite not making a direct pledge, particularly regarding their plight in Chibok, pledged to make security a top priority.
They urged the President to beam a searchlight to the recovery of the remaining 92 of the kidnapped girls.
According to the parents, former President Muhammadu Buhari, in his inaugural speech on 28 May 2015, said his administration could not claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing Chibok girls.
They added that on 14 April 2021, a statement, titled: Chibok Girls Still On Our Minds, was released to further remind them of the former President’s promise and reassured them that all their girls would be rescued and reintegrated into their communities.
“With the baton changing under the same political party now in 2023, history will no doubt be kind to you, your family, your government and your party if these statements from your predecessor are achieved under you, more so, with our son, Vice President Shettima.
“Mr President, we ask you to be the light that will illuminate our darkness, end our writhing pains, dry our tears and free us from the shackles of sadness, sorrow, and anguish this trajectory has brought into our existence.
“When we marked the ninth year of remembrance of the abduction this year, we didn’t think we would hold any more commemoration. The truth is that we don’t want to. But regrettably, so it seems. Except you come to our rescue and give us succour, another sober commemoration knocks.
“We wait patiently for this succour as our acceptable alternative”, the parents said.
