On 11 May for instance, a large number of armed policemen sealed off Unity Fountain, the venue of the daily sit outs of the group, based on what a senior officer said was “orders from above” to stop the gathering which, according to him, has become “offensive, illegal and must be discontinued”.

Some leaders of the movement were even arrested and later released after interventions from higher quarters. “I was beaten on the streets of Lagos during the military regime. I will not take it in a democracy. We have the right to stand here and demand that the government bring back our girls. We will continue to demand that they bring back our girls until the government acts according to their responsibility,” Ezekwesili said of the determination of the group to continue with the protests after the intimidation by the police.

In his attempt to ban the protest last Monday, Mbu had claimed that the police had information that dangerous elements were about to join the group under the guise of protest and detonate explosives aimed at embarrassing the government. “People have been protesting over a month now. It is the issue of terrorism, it is not solved in one day. Then, when you continue to do it persistently, it becomes a nuisance to the government,” the police chief famous for his lack of respect for rule of law as Rivers State Commissioner of Police said when asked whether the ban would not violate the constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom of expression and assembly of the protesters. Mbu further argued that the ban was not aimed at only #BringBackTheGirls campaign directed at the federal government. But Nigerians are not fooled by Mbu’s attempt to mask his action as a pre-emptive measure. Though the #BringBackOurGirls protesters have denied having any political agenda, supporters of the President have said their activities are targeted at bringing down the government.

The police ban is therefore believed to be in furtherance of the hostility of the federal government to the #BringBackOurGirls protesters which it now regarded as an initiative of the opposition party despite the global attention it has gathered. For one, the police action came less than a week after Labaran Maku, the minister of Information, voiced government’s increasing irritation with the protests, with the ridiculous claim that 90 per cent of #BringBackOurGirls protesters are actually members of the opposition All Progressives Congress.

About two days after police had stood watching as members of a group tagged #ReleaseOurGirls, a counter-protest believed to be sponsored by government, harassed the #BringBackOurGirls protesters at the Unity Fountain. The new group, whose members were bused to the venue of the protest in government-owned SURE-P buses, said they were not calling on the government for the rescue of the girls but directing their grievances to Boko Haram members. The counter-protest was an actualisation of the charge to the #BringBackOurGirls group to direct their demand for release of the girls at the terrorists during an earlier protest to the Aso Rock presidential villa. “Well, what does one make of a government that has now rented a crowd of delinquents to attack the ‘bring back our girls’ protesters and counter their message? Nigerians voted for Goodluck Jonathan as President, and not for the terrorist called Abubakar Shekau. It is therefore right for them to demand action to return the girls safely from their President, rather than from the anarchist, Shekau,” APC said in a statement condemning the attack on the protesters who have been very peaceful and orderly in conduct since they started. Despite the reversal of the ban order by Mohammed Abubakar, the Inspector-General of Police, a day after, the group had instituted a suit against the ban by Mbu.

Critics however said the attack of the protesters and the directive that they should direct their protests at Boko Haram is reflective of the manner the government has handled the issue of the abducted girls since the event occurred.

As pointed out by former president Olusegun Obasanjo in an interview last week, the President was in disbelief about the abduction of the girls for over two weeks after the event. Thus, for two weeks, there was no concrete action to rescue the girls as the President and his officials dithered on the need for action, believing the abduction was stage-managed for political purposes.

This initial delay, Obasanjo, like other analysts believed, jeopardised the chances of immediate rescue of the girls. “If the President got the information within 12 hours of the act and he reacted immediately, I believe those girls would have been rescued within 24 hours, maximum, 48 hours. Don’t forget, they are almost 300 girls. The logistics of moving them is something the sect would have encountered. Unfortunately, the President had doubts: Is this true? Is this a ploy by some people who don’t want me to be President again? Who is doing this?” Obasanjo told Bloomberg Television early last week. Speaking in the same vein, Ezekwesili said the failure of government to rescue the girls so far is the consequence of the systematic indifference that followed the news of the abduction: “Until the Federal Government own up to the truth of their nearly three weeks of neglect of our Chibok girls, it makes it harder for citizens to believe their efforts.”

However, with the persistent demands for action by the #BringBackOurGirls protesters, which aroused interests of people around the world to the fact of the abduction and the then approaching World Economic Forum for Africa, government was forced to act. Apart from accepting offers of support which were coming from all over the world, the first concrete step of President Jonathan was the setting up of a rather unwieldy Presidential Fact Finding Committee on the abduction of the Chibok Girls on 5 May. The committee, which has over 20 members, is chaired by Brigadier-General Ibrahim Sabo. The committee, according to the President, is to interface with all those concerned with the abductions to provide a well-coordinated input to the investigations and circumstances related to the kidnapping of the girls. Critics believe that the job of the committee could have been better handled by the police. However, just as the committee has been doing its work, Nigeria’s Armed Forces and their partners from countries that have offered to help Nigeria, especially the United States, have been combing the Sambisa forest for the girls.

Hope of eventual rescue of the girls was heightened on 12 May with the release of a video showing 130 girls by Boko Haram. Abubakar Shekau, leader of the violent sect, who spoke in the video, said the teenagers were among the students kidnapped in Chibok. The girls were dressed in full muslim gowns and were seen reciting Quranic verses. Shekau had called for a swap of the girls with detained insurgents, saying: “We will never release [the girls] until after you release our brethren.” This magazine gathered that about 2,000 Boko Haram members, including some commanders of the insurgent group, are in detention of various Nigeria security agencies.

To authenticate the identity of the girls shown in the video, the Borno State Government had organised viewing sessions where over 70 parents from the Chibok area were said to have been able to identify their children among those shown in the video. Many analysts said then that the release of the video indicated that the sect was ready to negotiate the release of the girls. The initial response to the offer of release of the girls for Boko Haram detainees was a firm no from the Nigerian government. Comrade Abba Moro, minister of Interior, rejecting the offer, said it was ‘absurd’ for terrorists to be giving conditions for release of the girls. But confusion about government’s disposition to the terrorists’ offer heightened when Tanimu Turaki, minister of Special Duties, who has been involved in working out a sort of amnesty offer for repented Boko Haram members, said government was open to consider all options to get the girls out. President Jonathan himself later told William Hague, the British Foreign Minister who visited him some days after, that government will not negotiate or exchange prisoners with Boko Haram for the release of the girls. That was before the President left Nigeria for France for a security summit devoted to tackling rising terrorism in the West African sub-region.