Four more girls out of the over 200 girls
kidnapped from the Government Secondary
School, Chibok in Borno State, have escaped from
Boko Haram insurgents, the Chairman of Chibok
Local Government Area, Mr. Bana Lawan, has
said.
Lawan, at a one-day stakeholders meeting for
validation of draft humanitarian response plan for
the abducted girls in Abuja on Wednesday, said
that with the four, the number of those that had
regained their freedom had risen to 57.
He was represented by the Director for Personnel
and Management, Mr. Musa Elijah, during the
meeting organised by the National Emergency
Management Agency.
The LGA chairman said, “The people of Chibok are
anxiously waiting for the safe return of their
children. Except for the unfortunate situation
where two of the parents have passed on. The
deceased were known to have high blood
pressure.
“Latest report reaching us is that instead of 53,
those that have escaped are now 57 and those
remaining are 164 and not 168.
Our correspondent in Borno however gathered
that the state Commissioner for Education, Inuwa
Kubo, told the Presidential Fact-Finding
Committee on the Chibok attack on Friday that
219 girls were still missing.
Lawan explained that it was not all those who
registered for the Senior School Certificate
Examination in the school that stayed back in the
school on April 14 when the insurgents struck.
“Those that registered for the SSCE are not all
that sat for the examination. Over 500 registered
and those who had relatives around decided to
move to various places like Kaduna and Maiduguri
to take the exams. Those that were left with no
relations decided to stay back and among them,
221 were abducted,” he claimed.
The chairman said the morale of girls in the
North-East was low as most of them were now
discouraged from going to school because of the
abduction saga.
“The school in particular has been existing for
long and the quality of education in it has been
diminishing. So I want to appeal to the Federal
Government, through NEMA and the presidential
committee, to intervene in rebuilding the school,”
he added.
Lawan commended Nigerians for showing
support for Chibok people, saying their action had
restored the hope and aspiration of the people for
the return of peace to their community.
He also lauded the Federal Government’s prompt
intervention through the provision of relief items
for the people.
Lawan, who also decried the poor health facilities
in the area, however appealed for the deployment
of medical personnel and teachers in the area.
He said the deployment of National Youth Service
Corps members would boost the educational and
health needs of the people of Chibok.
Elijah later told journalists on the sidelines of the
meeting that the insurgents might have noticed
that the four girls had become a liability to them
and therefore decided to ‘discard’ of them.
“You know we just generalise it as escape. But
when they (Boko Haram) notice that you are sick
or very weak or a liability to them, they will
discard of you,” he said.
He also dismissed the claim that the Sambisa
Forest where the girls are believed to be held is
bigger than Lagos.
Elijah said, “The reserve (Sambisa Forest) is about
17 by 24 kilometres. As students of the
University of Maiduguri, we used to go there. It is
not as big as people are saying and when they
(Boko Haram) discard of you, you can actually trek
it. So the girls can actually trek from the forest
to a nearby village where somebody could spot
and assist them.”
But he said that security operatives might find it
difficult to penetrate the forest because of the
mines allegedly planted there by the sect.
Asked if the remaining girls were still being held
in the forest, Elijah replied, “Of course, they are
there. The first time when vigilante groups went
there, they saw them. The girls even talked with
them. But nobody can go there to rescue them.
But I believe the girls will be reunited with their
families.”
Elijah also refuted claims that the abduction saga
was pre-arranged.
“You mean the whole villagers will gather
themselves and connive and say let us lie. These
people (sect) have over 40 Toyota Hilux vans and
they can beat checkpoints because they have
heavy weapons,’’ he said.
Earlier, NEMA Director-General, Alhaji Mohammad
Sani-Sidi, had said the meeting was aimed at
strengthening the coordination mechanism for
humanitarian response in Chibok.
“While the Federal Government is working
towards the safe release of the abducted girls, it is
important that a sectoral response plan is
prepared for their rehabilitation and reintegration
back to normal life,” the News Agency of Nigeria
quoted him as saying.
“The objective of the meeting is to integrate all
sectoral response plans into one holistic multi-
sectoral response plan to avoid duplication of
efforts,’’ he added.
Also, the UN Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, Dr
Dauda Toure, said the organisation had mapped
out a $75m intervention plan for states affected
by the state of emergency in the North-East.
According to him, the UN system in Nigeria has
developed an integrated response package to
address the humanitarian needs in Chibok.
It was gathered in Maiduguri on Wednesday that
the state Commissioner for Education told the
presidential fact-finding committee that
government officials found out during the data
capturing and visits to parents that the four
more girls who escaped from the insurgents had
reunited with their parents.
The commissioner was said to have been furious
with the parents for keeping the government in
dark.
Meanwhile, the President of the Civil Rghts
Congress of Nigeria, Mallam Shehu Sani, has said
that the meeting between ex-President Olusegun
Obasanjo and some family members of Boko
Haram insurgents in Abeokuta, Ogun State was
to open a new channel of dialogue for the
release of the abducted schoolgirls.
Sani, in a statement on Wednesday, said that the
meeting was also meant to fashion out a fresh
understanding to resolve the insurgency in the
North-East.
He said, “My statement is in response to the
reports and the enquiries on the Abeokuta meeting
with the former president and some family
members of the Boko Haram insurgents.
“This is to confirm that the meeting actually took
place and I was part of it. The meeting was solely
aimed at exploring the possibility of opening a
new channel for dialogue or negotiation with the
sect members towards securing the release of the
abducted Chibok girls held in captivity for over a
month.”
He said at the meeting, there was an appraisal of
the ‘back door’ deal that was later cancelled by
the government.
Sani added, “I wish to also confirm that the
report of the intervention of Mallam Ahmed
Salkida in negotiating the release of the Chibok
girls is credible.
“I personally introduced Salkida to the
government and spoke about him in many of my
previous interviews. He has tried his best in the
past and of recent to help in resolving the
insurgency through dialogue but was on all
occasions frustrated by the government.
“Mallam Salkida should not be vilified but should
be appreciated. Salkida’s attempt could have
actually seen to the release of the abducted girls.
The meeting in Abeokuta was aimed at
repackaging and salvaging the dialogue option.”
He warned that the use of force would not bring
back the schoolgirls, saying that it was agreed at
the meeting that negotiation remained the best
option in rescuing them.
Sani said, “The consequences of the use of force
to rescue the girls are clear. The indecision
whether to swap or to storm is also not helpful.
“Our children are our precious seeds for
tomorrow’s harvest. We cannot celebrate
Democracy Day with our children in chains.The
ongoing insurgency is now part of our history and
the challenge before us is not to allow it to be our
fate.With national solidarity and resilient spirit we
shall overcome.
“It was generally agreed that the initiative cannot
take off without the consent of the Federal
Government. It’s significant for Nigerians to note
that negotiation is the only safer option to get the
girls back home.”
Also on Wednesday, a British newspaper, Daily
Mail, reported that the United Kingdom planned to
send hundreds of soldiers to Nigeria to assist
the military in rescuing the girls.
The newspaper, however, said that the UK
ministers and military chiefs had yet to sanction
the plan put forward by senior officers attached
to the specialist UK team sent to Abuja following
the kidnap of the girls.
It added that the troops would not be involved
directly in the hunt for the girls or take an active
role in any military action against the
insurgents.
The newspaper said Downing Street was anxious
to assist the Nigerian government in providing
security against the terrorists without committing
any UK troops to ‘high risk’ deployments.
It added that the role of the British force would
be to help restore morale and train Nigerian
soldiers on how to track and fight Boko Haram.
Britain, France and the United States already have
Special Forces, anti-terror experts and specialists
in hostage negotiation helping the Nigerian
military to pinpoint where the girls are being held.
Britain, the US and France have been using aerial
surveillance, satellite intercepts and evesdropping
on telephone calls made between suspected
representatives of the kidnappers and their
supporters to track the movements of the Boko
Haram gunmen.
Until recently Britain had a training facility in
Ghana where its military instructors trained West
African countries in readiness for their
deployments with the African Union in a project
called Exercise African Winds.
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