Hopes were dashed, joy squashed and euphoria diminished for the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group when the Defence headquarters yesterday refuted earlier rumours making the rounds that the Chibok girls had been released.
When the information as regards the release of the girls had filtered out last evening, it was a feeling of mixed reactions for the group- Some felt happy, some sad, others almost unbelieving.
The leader of the group, former Minister of Education, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, was among those who wanted to believe but was restrained by mixed feeling of joy and unbelief.
Sounding almost disbelieving, Ezekwesili tweeting from @obyezeks said, "DAY162 of our #ChibokGirls. I have said it would be a day of unspeakable joy when the agony of our 219 daughters and their parents shall end.
"We wait and we are of good courage that our girls shall be rescued. We stay unrelenting in our expectation.
"Yes, the rumor of their rescue is strong. We wait with earnest hope and expectation for evidence. What joy.
My heart is pounding in excited anxiety as we wait. Lord, please let not our hope be dashed. Let this be the day.
"@GENOlukolade please get the Military to end our anxiety. Can we see evidence that our #ChibokGirls are the ones being rumoured rescued?
"If only the @GENOlukolade and our HQNigerianArmy can confirm this strong rumor to be the truth by having our girls before the camera please.
"#ChibokParents cannot confirm because they also don't know and are hearing strong rumors like everyone of us. Waiting is hard. Too hard."
Minutes later, it turned out her reaction was the best as the Defence headquarters retracted their statement, unleashing such venom from Nigerians on the social media whose hopes were once again dashed.
Ezekwesili once again took to twitter to say, "Once again, our hope is dashed. The @DefenceInfoNG says rumor not true that our #ChibokGirls were rescued. It is heart breaking. Speechless.
"All who echoed sounds of joy at the news that sadly dashed our hope, take not back your voice. Echo their cry for freedom: #BringBackOurGirls!!!!!!
"We cannot afford the luxury of hopeless disappointment so we rise from dashed hope and stay demanding #BringBackOurGirls now and alive!"
On so many social media platforms, the news was greeted with outrage, pain and anger all targeted at the military for misleading the public especially the affected families.
One of such was one Yomi Ladipo who said, "General Chris Olukolade deserves to be fired for that silly statement. How dare you toy with such sensitive information?"
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