The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) today Thursday, December 17, embarked on a protest in Katsina State where they called on the state and Federal government to immediately rescue the hundreds of students kidnapped from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara in the state.

Led by some national leaders of the group, the protesters carried placards with inscriptions such as "BringBackOurBoys;" "government must speak out;" and "We want our children back" amongst others, according to Premium Times.

However, the protest commenced and ended in hotel premises, where the conveners conceded to the government demands to cancel the protest as progress was being made to secure the release of the missing children.

One of the conveners, Nastura Ashir, told newmen inside the hotel premises that the protest was earlier designed as a street walk from Katsina to Daura to meet President Muhammadu Buhari and demand for the immediate release of the missing children.

Mr Ashir said the group spoke with the police and state government on Wednesday, with the police saying they cannot provide security for the protesters from Katsina to Daura.

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On their part, the government urged the group to halt the planned protest because efforts are in top gear to release the abducted schoolboys and any protest can destabilise such progress, Mr Ashir said.

Mr Ashir said: ''Another demand from the government is that we have to document all our demands to the president through the Katsina State government while promising to take all the necessary actions.

“We are convinced that the protest can hamper the rescue process and our concern is for the government to rescue and reunite the schoolboys with their parents, which is the reason why we halted the protest.''

He added that the children are in a difficult situation, especially now in the cold harmattan weather.

Mr Ashir also said, “we will wait for some days and be watchful of the rescue process and anything short of that, we will commence the protest in other northern states in solidarity to the Katsina schoolboys.”