Keep Hope Alive, Borno Group Urges Parents Of Abducted Teenagers

SAN FRANCISCO, May 12, (THEWILL) â€' Parents, guardians and relatives of the over 200 teenage female students seized by Boko Haram terrorists in Chibok, Borno State, have been urged to keep hope alive as security agencies backed by foreign anti-terror specialists fine tune strategies to secure their freedom.

The Southern Borno Development Association (SBDA) Monday in a press conference in Maiduguri, assured that the girls will be re-united with their families.

'We urged the parents and the community not to lose hope that they will soon be re-united with their daughters,' the group said.

The group led by its chairman, Yahaya Gaya and secretary, Abdullahi Mohammed, said it was aware of the murderous and blood-letting acts of Boko Haram which it described as the worst in history of mankind, but assured that the concern, support and prayers of Nigerians and the entire world would turn their 'gloom to hope and finally joy.'

It decried that Boko Haram has inflicted pains and trauma on locals in three northeast states of Adamawa, Yobe and Borno with almost all communities in Borno losing their sons and daughters to the ceaseless killings and horrendous attacks by the insurgents.

'The psychological trauma which the victims and their parents are undergoing will leave a permanent imprint on their minds. To imagine what the victims are undergoing in the hands of these bandits who are masquerading under the banner of Islam, will only send cold down our spines,' the group said.

It claimed that Boko Haram insurgents were holding the country hostage due to 'failure of intelligence and political manipulation, urging that: 'We should ask ourselves how come that a small group of people have come to hold an entire state, albeit a region and country hostage?'