Group, CSOs Reiterate Calls for Release of Abducted Girls
Sunday Ehigiator
Catalyst for Global Peace Initiative (CPI) in partnership with Realm of Glory International church and other civil society organisations (CSOs) yesterday reiterated its call for the release of the remaining girls who are still in Boko Haram captivity.
Joining the clarion call were the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR), Bring Back Our Girls Movement (BBOG), Our Mumu Don Do Movement (OMDD), the Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), and Citizens Monitoring Group.
Speaking in one accord at the Lagos Headquarters of Realm of Glory International church, they sought to reawaken the government and the world towards the agony currently being faced by the abducted girls in the embattled Northern part of the country.
They further called for quick intervention by all stakeholders involved, under the banner of ‘Not Forgotten; Not Forsaken’
In a rather pensive atmosphere, the event started with an awareness march to the venue of event by the various groups involved respectively, with each of them able to draw attention the attention of onlookers to the messages carried in their displayed placards and banners, before the speech session kicked off officially.
In his introductory remarks, the Convener CPJ, Catalyst Abraham Aiyedogbon said, “It’s my conviction, that Nigeria will not remain the same after this movement, because it has been said, that all that evil needs to triumph, is for good people to watch and do nothing, say nothing, and pretend like they see nothing.
“But now that there is a forth coming election, there is a great effort to awaken the Nigerian people, the Nigerian youths from their slumber; it is time to bring back the real change; not the change that have changed.
“So on behalf of CPJ, it is our pleasure to welcome you all to this great occasion. I think the fact that this event is holding in the premises of a church, speaks volume.
“For a long time, the church has been like an army parked. Being armed; either properly, or not sufficient; but not deployed, you and I will agree, that if religious people have been mobilised, and they have been right there deployed, and informed about their civic responsibility, and of the fact that the office of the citizens is higher than any political office in the nation, about the fact that power belongs to the people and not to the government.”