Bring Back Our Girls dissociates self from fundraising for Chibok girls organised by Pres. Buhari's daughter

Advocacy group for the missing Chibok girls, Bring Back Our Girls BBOG, has distanced itself from the fundraising organized by president Buhari's daughter, Hadiza Buhari-Bello who is the Chairperson of Africa Support and Empowerment Initiative (AFRISEI) and the Nigerian Peace Corps (PCN). BBOG in a statement, says it has no affiliation with the fundraising event. Read the statement below...

Following repeated enquiries from the media, we stumbled upon information of an event tagged “Official Inauguration and Signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the Chibok Girls Endowment Project” organised by the “Peace Corps of Nigeria” and “Africa Support and Empowerment Initiative”, with Hadiza Buhari-Bello.

We are shocked, perplexed and completely dumbfounded to see the bold inscription of our hard-earned name, #BringBackOurGirls, on the event’s backdrop. We state categorically that we are not party to the said event and have absolutely no information of its origin. We urge the general public to disregard attempts at linking our movement to this highly suspicious event.

After 902 days of painstaking advocacy, it is disheartening and unfortunate to suddenly see attempts, by external actors, to use it for selfish purposes. We have carefully built our reputation as a well-organized and disciplined global movement that is completely self-funded.

The deliberate decision, to remain funded by sacrificial contributions of members for our very negligible needs, is the reason we are solely a Citizens’ Movement, and not an NGO. It will be highly injurious to allow it be dragged in the mud at this point. We therefore demand an immediate retraction and unreserved apology from the organizers.

Together with our lawyers, Femi Falana & Co., we are considering a response to this attempt to smear our movement. We call on the general public and law enforcement agencies to be on the look-out for unscrupulous persons who may already be/are planning similar nefarious acts to deceive the local and international community.

Signed:

For #BringBackOurGirls

AISHA YESUFU
OBY EZEKWESILI

This post first appeared on Linda Ikeji's Blog. Read the original story here.