A rally has been held at Belfast City Hall calling for the release of Nigerian schoolgirls abducted last month by Boko Haram.
Dorcas Obikoya, from the Nigerian Association Northern Ireland, said: "We are telling the Nigerian government to look into the actions of the Boko Haram and release those children. Their parents are in agony.
"We are appealing to all Nigerians, and all Nigerian friends to support us to campaign for bringing our girls back.
"We see support from the PSNI, and support from the city council. It is all over the news here in Northern Ireland, so it is very, very amazing the support we received in Northern Ireland."
Meanwhile the parents of Nigeria’s missing schoolgirls left their homes and made the journey to the burnt remains of the Chibok school where their daughters were captured more than a month ago.
They had come to see President Goodluck Jonathan, whose failure to appear in the village where more than 300 girls were taken by Islamic extremists had become a symbol of how this north-eastern outpost has felt neglected by central government.
By 8am relatives of the abducted pupils – as well as some of the young women who managed to escape Boko Haram – were gathered at Chibok government secondary school in Borno, waiting expectantly for the man who they thought had forgotten them. But then, after more than an hour of sitting around, a call came through to the school’s principal, Asabe Kwambura. Jonathan would not be coming.
“We were all prepared,” Ms Kwambura told The Independent. “Some will be angry that he did not come. We had the parents and the students all gathered to see him and then we get the information to say he is not coming. We understand he was called by other foreign countries to discuss the missing students.”
The apparent explanation – one which was not well-received by parents – was that the region was too unsafe for a presidential visit.
Insurgents killed at least four soldiers in an ambush near the village on Monday and a senior government source said that the President was advised not to go ahead for security reasons.
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