The #BringBackOurGirls Movement has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to secure the release of the 110 abducted Dapchi schoolgirls and 112 remaining Chibok girls.
The group threatened to sue the government for criminal negligence if it failed to secure the release of the girls.
This came from Co-Convener of the group, Oby Ezekwezili, during a rally for the release of the abducted school girls at the Villa gate in Abuja, on Tuesday.
According to her, “We suspect that there is a deliberate high-level attempt to cover up the actions and inactions that led to the abduction of our 110 #DapchiGirls on 19th February 2018.
“While we wait for the Federal Government’s response to our fourteen questions, our movement hereby issues a seven-day (one week) notice to the Federal Government to, without delay, bring back our 112 #ChibokGirls and the 110 #DapchiGirls, failure by which shall necessitate our legal actions for its criminal negligence that led to the recent abduction of our girls 110 DapchiGirls.”
#BringBackOurGirls served a 7 day notice to @NGRPresident and shall commence a legal action against the Federal Government for Criminal Negligence which enabled the #DapchiGirls abduction should it fail to get them back. Here’s the justification from our Lawyer Mr Femi Falana SAN pic.twitter.com/vIPXqCv1BG
— Florence Ozor™ (@FlorenceOzor) March 13, 2018
She said the group was infuriated at the blunders that led to the latest abduction of 110 schoolgirls in another state of the country despite what happened when Chibok girls were abducted in 2014.
“The magnitude of incompetence and carelessness of our government enabled the repeat of the worst abduction tragedy,” she said.
Also speaking at the rally, a Human Rights Lawyer, Femi Falana, noted that the Federal Government had violated section 14 subsection 2 of the Nigeria Constitution which provides that the security and welfare of the Nigerian people shall be the primary purpose of governance.
He added that section 35 provides for the personal liberty of Nigerians.
“In other words, no citizen of Nigeria can be abducted, seized or even detained illegally without a reaction by the government,” Falana noted.
The human rights lawyer noted that the value of human lives seemed not to mean much to the government any longer.
He chided President Muhammadu Buhari for the statement he made in Benue State that his instructions were not obeyed by the Inspector-General of Police.
“Our duty as citizens and, as far as this movement is concerned, and I think the movement has taken the right decision – we are going to court.
“The Federal Government has set up a panel; let other citizens feel concerned.”
The movement had asked the Yobe State government to respond to 14 questions as a matter of urgency and necessity.
The movement sought to know the circumstances in which the Dapchi schoolgirls were abducted.
It asked: “How can a terrorist organisation, which the government claimed to have defeated, launch a successful attack?
“How could a school in North-East Nigeria be so negligently abandoned without any form of security and surveillance?
“Why was there at first a denial of the abduction of DapchiGirls by officials of government?
“On what basis and on whose instruction was the military withdrawn from Dapchi, and to whom did they hand over, and many others.”
The group accused the government of incompetence and hidden agenda for allowing the same abduction tragedy to take place without taking precautionary measures to forestall it.
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