Nigeria's Bring Back Our Girls Group to Meet with President Buhari

FILE - Scores of protesters marching chanting "Bring Back Our Girls" kidnapped six months ago by Boko Haram.

As Nigeria and neighboring countries debate the leadership of a military task force and how to fight Boko Haram, Bring Back Our Girls campaigners are pressing Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to rescue girls kidnapped by the group and end the insurgency.

The cry rings out at the Unity Fountain Park in central Abuja. The cry of Nigerian parents, relatives and campaigners of the Chibok girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram more than a year ago.

More than 100 people met to discuss issues surrounding the kidnapping of the 219 girls.

They have met in this park for more than a year.

The group's leaders say President Muhammadu Buhari has responded to a letter they sent last week and he will be meeting them soon.

Bring Back Our Girls campaigner Hadiza Bala Usman said there are several issues to address.

“One being the status and rescue of the girls, making inquiries about ending the insurgency, where we are in terms of accountability and security spending. We have a document called the citizens solutions to end terrorism which is a collection of information that was drawn across the citizens, which we will present to him,” said Usman.

Nigerian media report President Buhari met with 10 parents of the missing girls last week before he left for African Union Summit in South Africa.

Nigeria, Chad, Benin, Niger and Cameroon have called for a united effort to defeat Boko Haram. The militants have been launching attacks in and near northeastern Nigeria since 2009.

Amnesty International says Boko Haram has abducted at least 2,000 women in Nigeria since the start of 2014, forcing many into sexual slavery and armed combat. Amnesty says men and boys are regularly conscripted or executed.

Reverend Mark Enoch had his biological and adopted daughters kidnapped in Chibok. He fled when Boko Haram threatened him.

“Really life has been so bad, life has been so bad, I lost my daughter, I lost my office, I lost my properties ... and really the former northeast is not steady, the university has been closed, all schools have been closed and we are forced to leave our own motherland. We are now refugees in Abuja,” said Enoch.

Dr. Peregrino Brimah recently joined the group in the park for the first time. He said it is good for people to be involved.

“As a physician it is only healing one broken limp at a time, but there is somebody on this other side bombing and breaking hundred limbs at a time. So at a point you have to look at it, and each one of us have a unique skill, and I believe we should never just be fixing to our little profession, we should be involved at some level in government,” said Brimah.

Usman said the meeting with President Buhari will mean little if it does not result in action.

“What matters to me is the outcome of the discussion what matters to me its if it translates into actionable activity where girls are rescued, where insurgency brought to an end. Meeting would reiterate the fact that the citizens are agitating for an end of the insurgency,” said Usman.

In April, President Buhari said he could not promise authorities will find the 219 kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls.

But for more than 420 days the voices of Chibok girls parents and campaigners have been raised. Their persistence and determination has given them a chance to pass their message to the president in the hope the girls and others in the hands of Boko Haram will be rescued.