Nigerians say government should do more to free kidnapped girls

Sit-in protests continued in Nigeria on Saturday (June 7) demanding safe return of over 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by militant Islamist Boko Haram group.

Three Nigerian newspapers said the army seized parts of their Friday print-runs and stopped distribution vans across the country, with one accusing the military of a rare crackdown on the media.
 
The Ministry of Defense said soldiers had searched a number of vehicles for unspecified sensitive material that it had heard was being transported with the newsprint, but insisted it had no intention of stopping the newspapers themselves.
 
Coordinator for the Anti-Corruption Network Dino Melaye said there was no justification for the actions by the military.

"The excuse by the military that that they had intelligence gathering and that was why they are doing what they are doing. What is the negative concomitant effect of the operation after the intelligence gathering? What were your discoveries after the seizure of these newspapers? It happened yesterday, you didn't find anything. Today you are repeating the same thing and you have not found anything. It shows there is another ulterior motive to the clamping down of the media," he said.

 The schoolgirls taken from a school in Northeast Nigeria have been missing for over fifty days.
 
Activists gathered for a sit-in protest in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos said the authorities should 'redouble' their efforts in securing the release of the girls.

"I think that there are many things that have gone wrong in this quite early, you know, right from numbers, the counting, how many of these girls and the politicization of what is clearly a human tragedy, a tragedy for communities. I do think we have got to try and do that right, to redouble efforts, and to do that with a sense of mission and professionalism and also of civic responsibility," lawyer Chidi Odinkalu, who chairs the Governing Council of the National Human Rights Commission, said.
 
The army has faced particularly harsh criticism for its handling of a mounting Islamist insurgency in the northeast and its efforts to free the schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram militants.
 
Earlier this week the Defense Ministry issued a statement denying local media reports that some of its senior officers had been court-martialled on charges of backing the rebels.
 
Defense headquarters said the newspaper searches "followed intelligence report indicating movement of materials with grave security implications across the country using the channel of newsprint-related consignments," without going into further details.
 
The newspapers said on Friday (June 6) they had been given no explanation for the stoppages. The Nation's paper edition led on suggestions from an unnamed source that the government might be ready to free detained insurgents in exchange for the abducted girls.
 
Also on Saturday, United States Congressman Christopher Smith told press in Abuja that the international community were working with Nigeria to secure the release of the kidnapped girls.
 
The congressman, who is the Chairman of the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Organizations, said he is hopeful that the girls will be returned.
 
"There is a great deal of hope that they will be found. I'm frankly not at liberty to talk about to talk about any specifics. I have been briefed, but it would be wrong to disclose any of that. But I know that we are working hand in glove with the French and the UK -- and of course the Nigerians -- to try and discover the whereabouts and find some means of safely securing their release," he said.
 
Smith's comments came at a meeting with the press and few other protesters shortly before the daily sit-in protest at the park.    
 
Boko Haram on April 14 abducted over 200 schoolgirls writing exams in Northeast Nigeria, the girls are yet to be found.
 
"I always believe -- especially in a situation where there is terrorism involved -- that we all have to manage our expectations. This is…Boko Haram is a lethal force. They have grown in capability, in weapons and the ability to evade detection. You know, the effort will be protracted, no one is going to let up until the girls are released and until this violence is ended," Smith added.
 
The girls' plight has shone the international spotlight on a violent 5-year-old battle for an Islamic state by insurgents who have killed thousands since 2009.


REUTERS