Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili also criticised the usage of the group’s hash-tag for President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2015 re-election ambition via the #BringbackJonathan2015, saying the presidency knew about it all along, contrary to the claims in the statement issued to order the removal of the banners.
“It was a shameful hash-tag. How can you mock the pain of 219 that look up to the government to save them but haven’t been saved? How could anybody make a mockery of this kind of tragedy?” she queried.
Former Minister of Education, Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili, on Thursday called on President Goodluck Jonathan to immediately rescue the hundreds of girls abducted in Chibok by the Boko Haram sect on 14th April 2014.
Speaking during a rally in Abuja organised by #BringBackOurGirls group to commemorate the 150th day of the girls’ abduction, Ezekwesili lamented that after five months there was still no sign of their return and rescue operations had yielded no result.
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“Citizens are appalled by the way the Chibok matter has been handled. This matter has been handled in a very appalling manner. I think it is necessary that the government redeems what is left of the expectation that citizens have by rescuing those girls immediately”, she said.
“One hundred and fifty days is too long for young girls to be in the midst of killers. They want us to move on. We can’t move on; they are our daughters. Enough is enough; it is time to rescue those girls and send a signal to the world that we are not a godforsaken country. Nigeria is a great country and we can rescue our girls.
“Our voice will not be silenced. We can save the Chibok girls. There is no reason we shouldn’t. That’s why we keep coming, and that’s why we keep standing”.
Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili also criticised the usage of the group’s hash-tag for President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2015 re-election ambition via the #BringbackJonathan2015, saying the presidency knew about it all along, contrary to the claims in the statement issued to order the removal of the banners.
“It was a shameful hash-tag. How can you mock the pain of 219 that look up to the government to save them but haven’t been saved? How could anybody make a mockery of this kind of tragedy?” she queried.
“The press release that was issued was a deceitful press release, because the presidency as represented by the spokesperson of the president on public affairs, was an arrowhead of the hash-tag. Anyone who is on social media knows that Doyin Okupe was the arrowhead of that hash-tag they now consider repugnant.
“How could they do that? If the girls had been rescued, it would be a different a matter. These girls are still with terrorists and you mocked the agony of their parents by doing such an offensive thing.”