IN PICTURES: Brave Nigerians protest in Maiduguri

A group of brave women and men on Friday staged a rally in Maiduguri, the besieged capital of Borno State, to demand the return of schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram militants on April 15.

The schoolgirls were abducted twenty-four days ago from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok. The girls were in the middle of their West African School Certificate examinations when heavily armed Boko Haram terrorists stormed their dormitories and abducted them.

Today’s protests were significant because Maiduguri is the hotbed of Boko Haram insurgency, in fact the town where Boko Haram first originated. The town has also witnessed some of the most gruesome attacks by the extremist Islamist group. The sect has killed over 5,000 people in the state including at least 300 killed at Gamboru-Ngala, a border town near Cameroon, during a daylight raid on Monday.

Yesterday, the sect blew up a major bridge linking Nigeria and Cameroon in the same area.

The Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has imposed a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States, all in the northeast part of Nigeria most ravaged by Boko Haram’s bloody activities.
The protesters carried placards demanding that the Nigerian government not politicize the abduction of the schoolgirls. The Nigerian government has been sponsoring some social media blogs and commentators to report that the Chibok abductions are targeted at tarnishing the image of President Jonathan’s administration.

The protesters in Maiduguri later met the state governor, Kashim Shettima, at the Government House and delivered their demands to him.

A source at the meeting reported that Mr. Shettima “broke down in tears” while addressing the protesters, assuring them that everything was being done to rescue the girls. A few days ago, Nigeria’s First Lady Patience Jonathan also shed tears while interrogating the principal of the Chibok school from which the girls were abducted.
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The video of the tearful Mrs. Jonathan’s emotional drama has since gone viral on the internet.

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