16th April, 2014
Delegates at the National Conference have condemned the kidnap of over 100 secondary school girls in Chibok, Borno state. The delegates who were dressed in black attire to mourn 14 April Abuja bomb blast victims called for a review of national security.
The female delegates wore black attires while the male counterparts wore black aprons on their dresses.
Shortly after reconvening from adjournment, delegates debated Nyanya’s bus station bomb blast that killed 72 and left over 100 injured.
Deputy Chairman of the women delegates, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, drew the conference attention to the reported abduction of about 200 boarding school girls in Chibok, Borno.
The school girls, aged between nine and 12, were allegedly abducted by unknown bandits who drove in a motorcade of trucks and buses and invaded the school.
Aisha Ismail, a delegate, condemned in strong words, the abduction of the innocent children, as various suggestions were offered by other delegates on what should be done about the current security challenge.
Fati Ibrahim (North West) said the women delegates who are mothers and wives, are in a situation of grief.
“Today is not a day for laughing or smiling because we are all bereaved and so we are mourning and that’s why we are in black. We have not gotten over what happened yesterday; this is another one (abduction of female students) happening today.”
She added that: “Mr Chairman, I’m so worried about those girls that have been abducted because we have had cases where women were raped. Some of the security agencies have given reports in the past that some of these girls kidnapped in the past were raped. Our hearts are bleeding today.”
Mosunmola Umoru (youth), said the abducted girls would go through unimaginable pains and trauma, adding that the implication was grave on the country.
She queried what the funds budgeted for security had been used for and called for accountability by security agencies.
Another delegate, Chief Annkio Briggs said: “I speak as a mother, I speak as a woman,” cautioned against bringing religions or ethnicity into the killings issue.
She said the Monday bombing at Nyanya motor park in Abuja did not differentiate between Muslims and Christians or among Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. “This is no longer about politics, it is about the security of the country,” she stressed.
Reacting to the Abuja bus station blast, Ebele Okeke, representing retired civil servants, suggested that the leadership, including five women, should visit hospitals where the corpses and the injured from the Nyanya bomb blast were taken to.
“We can have two groups with the chairman leading one group and the deputy chairman leading the other group. But it is important that we do not just sit here and talk about it but we should empathise with the victims.
“Also, these children that were kidnapped, we cannot deceive ourselves, they are going to be serially raped; most of them will not survive and those who survive are totally ruined for life,” Okeke said.
She urged Nigerians to remember the victims and the abducted in their prayers.
Ramatu Usman, representing women, said people should be able to identify those actually perpetrating the ugly incident. “If it was possible to identify those behind the Maitasine sect, the Niger Delta militancy and the OPC, Boko Haram members could also be identified.”