Al-Mu’minaat Social Advocacy Project (SAP) has expressed shock that over a week after more than 234 school girls were abducted in Chibok town, Borno State, the Nigerian government and the country’s entire military and intelligence organs are unable to provide any meaningful leads to the whereabouts of the missing students.

The non-governmental organization, in a statement signed by its Chairperson, Hajia Sherifah Yusuf-Ajibade on Friday in Ibadan, sympathised with the families of the abducted girls and maintained that it was not too late to declare at least a day of mourning in honour of the students who were presently going through physical and psychological torture.

The Organisation noted that the fact that some of the kidnapped students could escape from their abductors and find their way home was an indication that they were being held within the country and close to, if not inside Borno State.

The organisation expressed surprise that the entire Nigerian military was powerless in the face of a small group of outlaws and terrorists.

According to the organization, it is appalling that the Nigerian president has not visited the state and the State governor only appeared at the scene of the abduction after a week of the incident.

"It is sad that instead of declaring days or weeks of national mourning and deploring all the security apparatus of the country in search of the missing girls,

Nigerian leaders were confident enough to partake in political rallies and assemblies. “It is unfortunate that Boko Haram is justifying its grievous atrocities with Islam. Islam is a religion of knowledge, peace and justice.

"It is not against seeking knowledge, whether termed Eastern or Western and it has never rationalized the killing of innocent souls, kidnap and /or abuse of women and girls and destruction of property. “The continuous targeting of school girls is a way of intimidating female students and discouraging them from getting educated”, it said.

According to the organisation, the nation must not allow this as the third Millennium Development Goal, which is the elimination of gender disparity in education will not be achieved if this is allowed to continue.

It wondered how could they lay claim to Islam as the philosophy behind their distorted ideology when the Prophet himself abolished the killing of female infants,encouraged girl-child education by stating that training a woman is equal to training a nation and promised God’s paradise to any man who trains his female children responsibly.

“The perpetrators of these heinous crimes (Boko Haram) and their sponsors cannot be Muslims. They are definitely people with ulterior motives, interested in dividing the country and making it ungovernable.

"Nigerians must come together to face this serious challenge rather than using it as a political tool to further parochial interests,” it added.

It called on the Nigerian government to rise above political rhetoric and take decisive action against this group and their cohorts, “we equally call on Nigerians to aid the police and military with any information that may lead to the release of the abducted school girls.

It noted that the spate of insecurity in Nigeria was on the increase and women and girls suffer more in situations such as this.