Neither Rain, Nor Shine Will Make Us Surrender – #BringBackOurGirls Group

The #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) Group stated that nothing can stop them from continuing its campaign aimed at the rescue of 276 Nigerian schoolgirls, kidnapped from their classroom on April 14 2014 by Islamist terror sect Boko Haram, Chibok in Borno State.

The picture of schoolgirls who were kidnapped from the dormitories of the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State

However, the group members who returned to their normal daily sit-out sessions in Abuja were caught in the heavy rain yesterday, 6 August, on their 99th session, they stated that“neither the heavy downpour nor the scorching sunshine could stop its members from demanding the government focus more efforts to bring the girls back home.”

As part of the programme to mark Day 100 of the BBOG’s advocacy for the safe return of the Chibok girls, the group will held a Sealed Lips Day demonstration and is to be followed by a press briefing in Abuja today. For 100 days now, the group has focused on keeping alive awareness of the abduction, to drive home that it is a priority issue requiring the right set of actions for a positive outcome.

The group has engaged various stakeholders – the Presidency, the National Assembly, the Borno State government and many more

The group first came to prominence in the weeks after the kidnapping, when Nigerians began tweeting about the fact that two weeks in the girls were still missing using the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. The hash tag #BringBackOurGirls trended globally on Twitter as the story continued to spread and by 11 May it had attracted 2.3 million tweets. The plea quickly gained international attention, drawing in support from celebrities and politicians in a bid to boost the signal.

The group has engaged various stakeholders – the Presidency, the National Assembly, the office of the national security adviser, the chief of defense staff, the Borno State government and other state governments, ECOWAS member countries and UN agencies – all in the bid to facilitate the quick return of the abducted girls.

Multiple countries, including USA, UK, France, China, Canada, Iran and Israel, agreed to send experts and troops to Nigeria to help pursue Boko Haram after the group took credit for the kidnapping and to assist in the search for the students.