The girls have the basic right to be educated and to be girls; girls have the inalienable right to be girls."Accra (ANTARA News/Xinhua-OANA) - Hundreds of women here Sunday staged a peaceful protest against the kidnapping of the over 200 students from a Government Girls Secondary School in Nigeria by Boko Haram.
The women marched through some principal streets of Ghanaian capital and ended at the Nigerian High Commissioners premises where a petition signed by over 300 people was presented.
The protesters carried placards with various inscriptions and chanted solidarity songs to bring back the kidnapped girls.
Some of the inscriptions read: "Bring back our girls," "Release the girls now," "We want action now."
Eugenia Techie Menson, Chief Executive Officer of Young Educators Foundation, who read the petition on behalf of the group, said there is the need to respect the right of the girls.
"The girls have the basic right to be educated and to be girls; girls have the inalienable right to be girls," she said.
The petition urged the Nigerian Government to act swiftly. "We are just a representative of the swelling voices of Ghanaians and other people round the world who believe that any extra second we spend not finding our girls is one second too many."
The group also pleaded with the High Commissioner to press upon the Nigerian government to do everything possible within its power to "bring back the girls."
On his part the Nigerian High Commissioner to Ghana, His Excellency Ademola Oluseyi Onafonoka after receiving the petition assured the group the Nigerian government was working tirelessly to bring back the girls.
"Let me thank you for your out pouring of emotions, solidarity, for your empathy; I am assuring you as a father that our daughters will be found and brought back to all of us alive and well," he said.
The Chibok schoolgirls, aged between 16 and 18, were abducted by their captors last month. The students had been recalled to school in the northern village to write their physics examination.
The girls abductors tricked them into believing they were being rescued from impending danger. They, however, became suspicious as they were being moved through the Sambisa forest which shares borders with neighboring Cameroon.
Nigerian armed group, Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the abduction of 276 schoolgirls during a raid in the village of Chibok in north-east Nigeria last month.
All of the schools in the area had been closed because of a recent spate of terrorist attacks in which students were the apparent targets.
The actions of Boko Haram have received lots of criticism and disapproval from all over the world, including the sub-regional body, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
While international efforts were underway, about 50 of the girls have so far managed to escape from their abductors.
Two members of the Islamist militant group have been arrested and international efforts were under way to rescue the schoolgirls.
Boko Haram meaning "western education is a sin," since its formation in 2002 has killed about 10,000 people. The group has killed about 1,500 Nigerians since the beginning of this year.
(U.C003)
Reporter: Francis Tandoh
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2014
