150 days after abduction: Borno parents shelve Abuja protest over logistics

Exactly 150 days after their kids were taken by terrorists, distressed moms and dads of 78 abducted schoolchildren in Borno State have actually been required to hold off a prepared mass demonstration at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The post ponement comes as the households face debilitating hardship, an absence of transportation fares, and the battle to leave food for their staying dependants.

The kids have actually remained in captivity following 2 different mass kidnappings in the Askira-Uba Local Government Area of Borno State, where 42 school students were abducted in Mussa on May 15, and 36 university student were taken in Lassa on June 29, 2026.

The desperate households at first provided a six-day demand to the Federal Government in between September 21 and 27, 2026, requiring the rescue of their kids.

The due date expired without any main interaction from the federal government. Intensifying their aggravation, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took a trip out of the nation throughout the duration, making a journey to the capital unwise at the time.

Speaking on the expiration of the due date, the chairman of the Abducted Children’s Parents Association, Ishaku Suya, discussed that the households did not have the funds needed to take a trip to Abuja and sustain an indefinite demonstration as prepared.

“You understand, we need to prepare it effectively. We require to have adequate resources to settle our households back home and cover the expenditures we will sustain in Abuja, since we are not returning till the President speak with us,” the chairman stated.

He kept in mind that numerous households are presently attempting to gather crops to mobilise funds for the journey. “We need to keep food here, pay transportation fare, and offer maintenance cash while remaining there, since nobody understands the length of time we will remain.”

Explaining the intolerable toll the scenario is handling the moms of the victims, Suya stated lots of have actually stopped consuming and deserted their farms due to the sorrow.

“They are constantly sobbing, and they do not consume food … They require us really near them,” he regreted.

He made a sob story to the media and residents throughout Nigeria to enhance their voices. “Our kids are everybody’s kids. I desire you to feel the unbearable discomfort we are withstanding.”

FG’s ‘double basic’

A few of the moms and dads who spoke with our reporter revealed deep anger over what they referred to as the federal government’s inactiveness and a glaring variation in how security crises are dealt with throughout various areas of the nation.

Sale Buba, among the impacted moms and dads, questioned the federal government’s dedication, indicating a double requirement in the rescue objectives.

He kept in mind that the Borno kids were abducted on the very same day terrorists abducted more than 40 trainees and instructors in Oriire LGA of Oyo State.

He stated that while the Oyo victims restored their flexibility after 56 days in captivity, the Borno kids have actually invested almost 5 months in militant enclaves with no action by the president.

“They understand that our kids remain in the Damboa forest, however they declined to release tracking drones and leading military brass to manage their rescue operation as they carried out in Oyo,” Buba stated.

“What did the president do when he desired the Oyo kids to be saved? Why not use it here? Enough of these deceptiveness.”

Another moms and dad from Lassa, Mr Samuel Emmanuel, regreted that following the kidnapping, many farmers had actually left their farmlands ignored.

“Many of us hesitated to go to remote farmlands; we left them ignored, so crops we worked so difficult to cultivate were damaged. We might not get anything,” he stated.

The majority of the moms and dads mentioned that the last time they had any main contact was throughout a conference with Borno State Governor, Prof Babagana Zulum, who communicated guarantees from the presidency concerning the safe rescue of the trainees.

Ever since, nevertheless, the households state they have actually been met deafening silence from both state and federal authorities, without any updates on rescue efforts or settlements with the kidnappers.

“We were informed that Governor Zulum satisfied the President last Friday and resolved newsmen quickly after the conference. Today is Sunday, yet no single security brass has actually been sent out to the neighborhood or to us for intelligence event or rescue operations,” stated a moms and dad, Daniel Gabriel.

‘Abuja journey still on the card’

Regardless of the short-term problem relating to the Abuja journey, the moms and dads stay undaunted, promising to storm the Presidential Villa as quickly as resources allow.

“We are figured out to stay there up until we are given an audience, despite the variety of days and the troubles,” stated a mom, Josephine Fadi.

Last Friday, Governor Zulum, while reacting to newsmen at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, stated he met the president and raised unique issues over the kidnapping of the school kids in Mussa and Lassa.

He stated the president reacted favorably and ensured that the Nigerian Army, State Security Service, and Office of National Security Adviser would heighten efforts to save the kids.

End ‘silence’ on captivity, HURIWA informs Tinubu

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has actually released a call to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, requiring instant and definitive action to protect the release of around 80 schoolchildren and instructors who have actually apparently been cooped by terrorists in Borno State for almost 6 months.

In a declaration launched on Sunday by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko, the popular civil liberties organisation criticised the federal government’s handling of the scenario, mentioning that the extended silence and captivity of the victims are inappropriate.

HURIWA stressed that President Tinubu, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, brings a supreme legal, constitutional, and ethical responsibility to guarantee the safe return of the kids. The group asserted that people need to never ever need to ask their federal government for standard defense and the defence of their essential right to life.

The extended experience has actually plunged the afflicted households into extensive distress.