Nigerian protesters in court over march ban

ABUJA: Supporters of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants headed to court on Tuesday to challenge a police ban on protest marches in the Nigerian capital, calling the decision illegal.
The Bring Back Our Girls campaign said it would seek to overturn the ban, which the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) police announced on Monday, blaming security concerns about the possible “infiltration” of militants.
Boko Haram fighters kidnapped 276 girls from their school in the remote northeastern town of Chibok on April 14.
A total of 219 are still missing and an international effort to locate them is on going with the Nigerian military. March organizers Oby Ezekwesili and Hadiza Bala Usman said their protests over the last 34 days had been peaceful and they could not understand the ban, as police had previously said they were within the law. A demonstration planned for Tuesday had been canceled, they added.
Instead, the group accompanied their lawyers to court where they hoped to obtain what they said was “an immediate restraint on this unconstitutional, undemocratic and repressive act.”
“Our movement is legitimate and lawful and cannot be arrested by the police, whose responsibility is to enforce, not betray, the law,” Ezekwesili and Usman added.
“We, the members of the #BringBackOurGirls Abuja Family, remain resolute and will persist in using all lawful means to sustain our peaceful advocacy for the safe rescue of the Chibok Girls.”