…Says, some came with their child, husbands.
…“Govt knows everything about terrorists; we’ve engaged Tinubu on how to end B/Haram…
…Over 300 people abducted in Gamboromgala in this March.
…“Media are quiet in Maiduguri” – Dr. Allen Manasseh blows hot.
by Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna
In a devastating revelation, Borno State Government has disclaimed allegations that,19 abducted Chibok girls released to them for their education have not been reunited with Boko Haram and returned to captivity with them, as speculated.
Some top government officials, who obliged information in confidence, in an interview, however revealed that some of the 14 Chibok girls came with child and their Boko Haram husbands to the Second Chance Rehabilitation Centre built by the state.
The government officials were reacting to allegations that 19 Chibok girls that came out of captivity, and released to Borno State Government 2 years ago with promise to educate them, were reunited with their captors, their impostor-husbands by Borno State.
It was also alleged that “The Chibok girls’ parents have expressed surprise over the development when it was found out that the girls were truly reunited with their captors-husbands brought by the state government,” they stated in writing.
Governor Zulum’s two government officials, who pleaded anonymity, said “There is misinformation about the whole program in the whole contest. I don’t have details of the exact program. All I know is that the whole of the girls were enrolled in the Second Chance Skill Acquisition Center where they will acquire more knowledge and skills to sustain themselves.
“Initially, the over 100 of them rescued were supposed to be taken over by federal government for free education, but with the change of government things did not go as planned; so, Borno State Government decided that it should enroll them in school they can acquire skill.
“They are no longer little girls, because they came back with child and cannot match with the conventional secondary schools anymore.
“So, they enrolled them into Second Chance Acquisition Centre built by Borno State Government purposely for elderly women, for skill and literacy in skills that will make them meaningful in society. Actually, 20 of them were enrolled. They went back to their parents in Chibok recently, during holiday and promised to come.
“Some of them, I could not remember their number whose parents took to Plateau State. I don’t know the particular place they are undergoing personal rehabilitation or something like that. But, the 14 decided to come back and continue with their skill acquisition. There is nothing like government marrying them out or something like that.
“Some of them came together with their husbands. Government did not give them any husband. Some of them came with their husbands from the bush. You know, they were not rescued at the same time, some by military or freely,” the two state officials said.
On whether the girls go to their families with their imposed husbands from bush, an official said “I don’t know. They are still at the Skill Centre learning the skills.”
The officials further explained that, “They are on various programs. Some are in Second Chance School, some decided to go back to their parents.
“How long does it take to graduate from primary or secondary school?” an official demanded. “We are told it’s Craft School, not conventional school,” our reporter responded. “That one is curriculum matter,” a state official responded.
All efforts to speak to the patents proved abortive. However, in an elaborate interview, an active and front-line citizen, popularly known and addressed by many as ‘Coordinator Bring Back Our Girls,’ Dr. Allen Manassah, said he knows that 14 of Chibok girls that escaped from captivity went back and are still in government custody but has not spoken with their parents whether it’s with their consent or not.
Dr. Allen Manasseh, also the Director of Media and Communication of the Kibaku (Chibok) Area Development Association (KADA), added that the recent report he read from the media was that the Governor refused to release them to their parents and kept them in their custody.
“I don’t have any records of any 19 girls. What I know and what l heard from the media about their parents, which I think is normal, is that 18 girls escaped, between 2021 and 2022, and four of them did not return back to the government when they were ask to return back to where they were keeping them.
“Only 14 went back, and the 14 are still in government custody. I have not spoken with their parents – whether it’s with their consent or not.
“But recent report I read from the media is that the Governor refused to release them to their parent and kept them together with the so-called bandits, the same terrorists that are acclaimed to be their husbands,” he said.
The interview reads in parts: “My own point of anger is that the girls talking of are young girls, who escaped from terrorists. If they escape from the terrorists, which means they don’t want to stay with terrorists.
“The next thing the reasonable government should do is to release them to their parents, after deal rehabilitation or debriefing, how you escape, where have you been ….
“The government of Borno State, especially Professor Zulum, don’t have right to keep girls that were abducted from school, away from home for over 10 years or so now.
“So, whether they want to go to school or they don’t want to go to school, that decision should be left to them and their parents, and not the government.
“So, keeping them in one ever facility, even if you are keeping them in Aso Villa or in Transcop, that is not where they want be. It is no different from staying in the terrorists den that they escaped. So, the girls must be released to their parents, the girls should be released to expose to any organization that wants to help them in whichever way.
“Some want to develop them, develop their capacity to go into what they are going to earn a living from, since their lives and education have been truncated for 10 years. Those that want to go back to school can still go back to school.
“I have put my life on hold for 10 years, and I have been insulted, I have been, you know, called different names, people are even thinking as if we are getting paid for it. Who is paying anybody for advocacy?
“So, I am tired of speaking and speaking, engaging the police, all the security agencies, military, the defence chief, you know, Service Chief, the President.
“I have engaged Goodluck, Buhari, and have also engaged Tinubu government on what they need to do to end terrorism and rescue all the people that are abdicated, not just the Chibok girls.
“If they have been working with what we have been telling them, from 2014, we wouldn’t have had Dapchi, we wouldn’t have had Kankara, Kagara, and over 10 other mass assumptions from school like even the resent one in Kaduna State.
“So, it’s a shame that 10 years after Chibok girls, we are still talking about children being taken away against their wish from schools. It’s a shame and any other person that is defending bandits.
“We still have people in IDP camps, we still have those towns that cannot be accessed, we still have federal roads under lock-and-key, and then we still have people that so-called themselves ‘military chief,’ ‘police chief,’ ‘politicians in FG or state government’ that are struggling for the released terrorists that have decided to surrender after they have been caged or boxed from fighting within themselves, ISiS and Boko Haram, and are now rehabilitating them better than even rehabilitating your citizens?
“Getting them to access sources of business, giving them ID cards to be misbehaving, recruiting them into our security agents – is that the right step to take?
“So, it is so anointing, honestly I am tired of talking about terrorism and the response of Nigeria to terrorism that we are still prosecuting on terrorism, and the best you can do is granting amnesty to terrorists, while making your citizens that have been displaced more poorer than even the terrorists because they refused to carry arms.
“And they are there languishing in IDP camps without doing anything. Go to Minnau in Cameroon, we still have more than 50,000 Nigerians still wallowing in poverty in Cameroon as we speak. We still have IDP camps scattered all over. Just because Zulum is closing camps in Maiduguri doesn’t mean that we don’t have camps. Over 300 people were abducted in Gamboromgala in this March. IDPs – who is talking about them?
“Media are quiet on Maiduguri; most communities are closed. We have federal roads that are under lock-and-key that we cannot use. Good example is Samboa to Maiduguri Road. We still cannot use the road and then you are talking about rehabilitating Boko Haram.
“And now, these girls just escaped on their own, not that you rescued them and came back to civilization. Take them to their families. Look for ways, if they want to leave this country, give them money, let them go and look for ways they can polish their lives back after taken a whole 10 years out of their lives, not to go and keep them in Maiduguri and say you have people teaching them nonsense.
“The government knows everything about this thing ‘terrorism.’ They know everything about B/Haram and bandits from the start. The only thing is there is no political will and sincerity of purpose to end terrorism.
“And that’s why people are still collecting ransom, making phone calls with bandits and are saying, ‘with increased improvement in technology in this global improvement in technology, we cannot trace terrorists on our soil.’ That they can carry hundreds of people and go away with them at will and still have to pay ransom for it. It’s a shame for anybody that calls himself a leader in Nigeria,” he lamented.
Recalled that, on the night of April 14, 2014, about 276 school girls of Government Secondary School Chibok were kidnapped. While 57 later escaped, 105 were brought back through independent escape and military negotiations even as 112 Chibok girls remain captivities of the Boko Haram terrorist group.