Some parents and relatives of the abducted students of the Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, have raised the alarm over the continued stay of the girls with their abductors, suspected to be members of the Boko Haram.
According to the parents, the lives of the girls may be ruined if they are not rescued before they are serially violated by their captors.
An aunt of one of the abducted students, identified as Dorcas, told LEADERSHIP Friday that the entire community was traumatized by the abduction of the schoolgirls.
She said, “My niece, Dorcas, was not lucky to be among the few girls who reportedly escaped from the hands of their abductors. Her father and all of us in the family have not slept since the incident. None of us knows what to believe concerning the fate of the girls.”
Another resident of the community and a mother three, Sarah, said “the 121 girls that the military claimed to have rescued are not our girls, because we have only seen 16 girls out of the abducted students. We have not seen the girls as claimed by the military.
“In the first place, it was our people that initiated the rescue mission before the military later joined. But in all of the rescue efforts, such number of girls was never found.”
Another resident of Chibok village, who pleaded anonymity, said two of her nieces of the same parents were among the missing girls.
She said, “As I talk to you now, the mother of these girls is traumatised and in a terrible state of mind. The government should stop this propaganda about rescuing the girls. If they have rescued them as they claim, they should return them to their parents, who are obviously going through difficult times.”
Parents, relatives of abducted schoolgirls lament their ordeal
Another parent, Mrs Lydia Ibrahim, said that it was very difficult getting some of the mothers to speak about their plights, but Chibok resident, Ibrahim, whose three cousins were amongst those abducted and taken away, said they still nurse the hope the girls will be brought back safely.
“We have been looking for them since the time we heard of the incident but there is no information. So, when we heard the military saying they had found them, we had to rush down to the school but found no one; it is over 24 hours now, yet we have not seen them. We don’t know what is happening because the news of their rescue by the military had really gladdened our minds. But now we are left in confusion. These girls are innocent. We plead that government should do all that it can to help us out,” Mrs Ibrahim.
A man who simply identified himself as Mallam Amos told LEADERSHIP Friday in Hausa that his daughter was among the girls taken away.
“I understand some of the girls were able to escape, but she is a tender girl, and I know she may not be able to summon that courage and escape. Her mother has fainted twice due to the trauma and fear of possibly losing her last daughter,” he said.
The district head of Chibok, who prefers not to be quoted using his names, said there had been a general sadness amongst the parents of the missing girls, especially as the military made a false claim that the girls had been rescued.
“We are now taking our destiny into our hands – all of us. Every male person that is an adult has volunteered to go into the bushes and search for our daughters since the military people are saying that they have rescued our daughter while they are nowhere near home,” he said.
Chibok elders refute military claim over release of students
Chibok elders of Borno State have faulted the claim of the Nigerian military saying that only eight out of over 100 students abducted in the state are yet to be freed.
The national chairman of Kibaku Area Development Association (KADA), Dr Pogu Bitrus, told journalists in Abuja yesterday that the military statement was false as he insisted that the families of the abducted students and the school authority are yet to receive their children.
DHQ keeps mum
All attempts made to hear the side of the Defence Headquarters on the controversy surrounding the purported rescue of the female students did not yield result.
Several calls made to the director of information, Major General Chris Olukolade, proved abortive as his phone was switched off. He was said to have gone for a special meeting.
The officer our reporter contacted over the issue insisted that he was not competent to speak on the matter.
Controversy trails alleged release of abducted Borno schoolgirls
Barely 48 hours Brigadier-General Chris Olukolade disclosed that 121 out of 129 female students who were abducted from Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Chibok, by members of Boko Haram had been freed by a combined effort of Civilian-Joint Task Force (C-JTF) and the Military Joint Task Force (JTF), Borno State governor Kashim Shettima and the principal of the school, Mrs Asabe Kwambura, have faulted the claim.
Olukolade had on Wednesday claimed the 121 of the kidnapped SSS-3 girls had been freed and that only eight were still in captivity.
But the Principal of G.G.S.S. Chibok, Mrs Asabe Kwambura, who Olukolade said had given him the information yesterday, denied ever giving him such figure, insisting that she stood by the 14 girls that Shettima announced as having been released.
Mrs Kwambura who spoke to journalists in Maiduguri said: “There is nothing in the military statement that is true about our abducted girls; up until now, we are still waiting and praying for the safe return of the students. All I know is that we have only 14 of them, and the security people, especially the vigilante and the well-meaning volunteers of Gwoza, are still out searching for them. The military people, too, are in the bush searching. So we have not received any information that they have got the students yet.
“So, let it be clear that all the information passed on the media by the military concerning 107 girls is not true. I, as the principal, did not tell anybody any figure on released students other than what our governor, His Excellency, Kashim Shettima, had informed the media.”
“They contacted me from the army headquarters in Abuja”, the principal went on, “and I told them that I don’t want to be seen to be contradicting myself on that because what the governor had said was what we know about; and I told them there may be additional rescue of the girls, but until this moment we have not received any of them apart from what we had before. What the governor said is still the true picture of the whole issue and that information given by the military is totally wrong.”
Governor Shettima had said, while announcing N50 million reward for information on the whereabouts of the girls, that only 14 girls had been recovered so far.
Kashim said this while speaking in an interview aired on the Hausa Service of the BBC yesterday morning.
“We have recovered 14 of the girls and we have announced a N50 million reward for any credible information that will help us get our girls released and re-joined with their families,” he had said.
Many residents of Maiduguri were angered by this sad development as they asserted that this false claim had laid bare the truth about how the military may have been feeding the nation with false claims on victories of their troops over the Boko Haram insurgents.
“For God’s sake, how can we continue like this? How could a whole military lie about what is verifiable? These girls are human beings, with flesh and blood and have come from homes and parents who are presently lamenting their missing wards. For one to come out and say they have been found when in actual fact the girls are still missing is, to me, the height of irresponsibility in public service”, said a Borno permanent secretary who craved anonymity.
Northern governors call emergency meeting
Following increased and sustained killings going on some parts of the north, the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF) is to hold an emergency meeting next Tuesday, April 22, 2014.
In a statement signed by secretary to the Niger State government and coordinating chairman, Forum of Secretaries to the Government of Northern States, Hon. Saidu Ndako Idris Kpaki, said the meeting would hold at the Niger State Governor’s Lodge, Jose Marti Crescent, Asokoro, Abuja, at 4pm.
The statement posited that “the meeting was called out of concern to address the incessant attacks and systematic killings of innocent people going on in the region which has become a source of embarrassment and great concern to the Forum.”
According to him, the meeting will discuss the increasing incidences of clashes between Fulani herdsmen and local communities as well as reckless massacre and kidnapping of people across the northern states.
Bomb Threat: NSCDC arrest man in Kaduna
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Kaduna State Command, has arrested one Mathias Odeh for threatening to bomb the national headquarters of the corps in Abuja.
Odeh, 34, was picked up at his residence located at the Federal Housing Estate, Goni-Gora, Kaduna, on April 14, 2014, following a privileged piece of information.
Speaking on the arrest, Kaduna State Commandant of NSCDC, Alhaji Zakari Ibrahim Ningi said operatives of the NSCDC from Kaduna command swung into action immediately following “report from the national headquarters of the bomb threat sent to the handset of a very senior officer. The operation was successful because the suspect has been apprehended and is giving us useful information.”
Upon interrogation, the suspect, Odeh, admitted he sent the bomb threat message claiming that he acted out of frustration following his sack from the corps when he least expected it.
The suspect said he was dismissed from the NSCDC in 2013 over his involvement in bribery and theft of crude oil in Bayelsa State where he was serving at the time.
He revealed that in order to conceal his identity and avoid being traced, he sent the threat message using the handset of his neighbour without her consent.
He further revealed that his disengagement was linked to the 22 drums of diesel that were siphoned from impounded trucks parked at the JTF Base in Yenogoa.
According to him, he served in the JTF for six years from 2006- 2012 before his sack in 2013.
In another development, the corps said it has arrested another suspect who gave his name as Felix Peter for parading himself as a civil defence officer and defrauding desperate applicants of their money.
Peter was arrested at Zangon-Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State on April 7, 2014, and has revealed that so far he has made over N2million from the fraudulent transactions.
Further, the suspect who is an undergraduate of the University of Jos claimed that he had an accomplices who are at large. However, the corps has vowed to apprehend them and bring them to book.
Senators urge FG, WAEC to extend exams
A group of senators have appealed to the federal government and the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to extend the period of the examination in order to accommodate the abducted students of Government Girls College, Chibok when they regain their freedom.
LEADERSHIP Friday recalls that female students, Borno State who were in school for the ongoing Senior Secondary School Examination were abducted by gunmen
They added that alternative arrangements should be made for the students by both the federal government and WAEC for them to write their final papers elsewhere outside the state, especially, the Federal Capital Territory.
Spokesperson of the group of lawmakers, Senator Magnus Abe, in a chat with Senate correspondents, said government must not allow the Boko Haram sect to record cheap victory by truncating the girls’ dream of acquiring education.
Students in N/East should stay at home- house leader
Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon Mulikat Adeola-Akande (PDP, Oyo) has stated that schools in the north-east should be shut down pending when insurgency in the region is addressed by security agencies.
The lawmaker said this while reacting to the Monday kidnap of over 100 female secondary school students in Borno State.
“I commend security agents for promptly coming to the rescue of the abducted girls in Borno. Some of them have been rescued and we pray that the remaining ones would also be found soon. However, I am of the opinion that schools in those areas be shut down until we are able to quell the insurgents,” she said.
Mulikat made this disclosure while speaking with journalists after she led female members of the House of Representatives to the National Hospital to sympathise with survivors of Nyanya bomb blast which occurred in Abuja on Monday morning.
Condemning the terrorist attack, the House Leader urged Nigerians to cooperate and unify against insurgency by sharing information with security agents about suspicious movements.
While going round the wards, the female lawmakers also offered prayers and cash donations individually to some of the victims after listening to their ordeal.
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