Yobe Pupils Massacre: BBOG Takes Protest To Education Ministry

5The Minister of Education, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau and Minister of State for Education, Prof. Viola Onwuliri, on Monday shunned a protest by the #BringBackOurGirls campaign group in Abuja over the recent massacre of schoolchildren by the Boko Haram sect in the North-East.

The protesters marched to the Federal Ministry of Education, Abuja, around 4.10pm and did not leave the ministry’s grounds until around 5.45pm, after the two ministers failed to come out to address them.

The protesters, who carried various placards calling for protection of school children in the North-East, eventually pasted them at the gate of the ministry.

The BBOG members, who were in tears over the plight of school children, said schools were a place of knowledge and not a killing field, and therefore called on the Federal government to move fast to protect the schools against further Boko Haram attacks.

The group also claimed that the minister of state for education was in her office but refused to come out and address them.

The BBOG tasked the government on the need to ensure adequate protection of children in all the schools because the killings were getting out of control.

“Our children are all dying and it can be anybody’s child. The children need to know that they belong to a country; we send our children to learn but what we get back are bodies of our children; this is unfair.

“Why were the children left alone without any security? It is imperative for the nation to protect our children; nobody deserved to die the way the 47 children in Potiskum were killed by Boko Haram suicide bomber”, the group said in a statement read by a member, Mr. Olatunji Olanrewaju.