Over 90 children who were kidnapped from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, nine years ago are still being held captive by the dangerous Boko Haram terrorists.
Nigerians and the rest of the world watch another anniversary of the kidnapping of the Chibok girls pass with sympathy. Remember that the kidnapping occurred on April 14, 2014.
The federal government of Nigeria agreed to take care of the welfare and education of certain abducted pupils that were recently found by the military.
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However, despite losing hope for the survival of the remaining kids, the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari vowed to persevere till the end of its term.
On May 1, a new administration will be inaugurated in on May 29, 2023.
President Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, told reporters on the ninth anniversary of the kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls that there is still hope for their rescue.
Recall that President Buhari pledged to free all of the kidnapped schoolgirls from their captors upon taking office in 2015.
However, in response to the Buhari administration’s inability to free all of the kidnapped Chibok girls as promised, Shehu claimed in an interview with Daily Trust that the federal government has not abandoned its plan to free the children.
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The Buhari administration would not give up on getting the remaining females back until the very last day of its term in office, according to Shehu, who added that some of the rescued had received training up to the level of a degree.
The presidential aide said: “I hope you have not lost sight of what led to the failure of their early recovery, the fact that the sitting government at that time was arguing with Nigerians for two weeks on whether the girls had been stolen or not.
“By the time they came to terms with the unfortunate incident, the footmarks of the victims had disappeared from the sands of Sambisa Forest.
“Against these odds, the Buhari administration, in the first instance, got back 84; 83 came home because one declined to come along, choosing to remain with the terrorists. Among the rescued, we have some of them who have been trained up to degree levels.
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“Thereafter, 24 more were rescued. From here, the rescue and return of the girls, in batches of one, two, three or more has continued. To its last day in office, the Buhari administration is not giving up on the return of the remaining girls.”
Boko Haram militants raided Chibok, a secluded community in Borno State, nine years ago, while Senator Kashim Shettima served as the state’s governor, and kidnapped no less than 276 secondary school girls.
According to news reports, the attackers rode motorcycles and trucks into the now-global village and fired intermittently at the populace. They generated panic, set fire to homes and other valuable property, then kidnapped their captives from the boarding school.
According to reports, the militants put the girls on trucks and drove to their hideout in the vast Sambisa jungle.
Reports claim that fifty-seven girls jumped out of moving trucks to flee the kidnapping. The remainder were relocated into the notorious terrorists’ lairs, where they were reportedly forced into marriage.
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Most of the females were Christians who were coerced into becoming Muslims; several gave birth while being held captive.
Abubakar Shekau, the sect’s then-brazen leader, quickly acknowledged to kidnapping the girls and justified it by blaming the Nigerian government for imprisoning Boko Haram members.
Due to the sect’s view that no female is too young for marriage, the girls—then just teenagers—were later partnered as wives with Boko Haram followers.
Boko Haram was established in 2002 by a Muslim scholar named Mohammed Yusuf, therefore it had been around for 12 years prior to the Chibok massacre.
According to Newsmen, they committed their first known act of violence in 2003 when they stormed several police stations, killed police personnel, and stole weapons.
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Malam Hamza Suleiman, an activist at the forefront of counterterrorism efforts, told reporters on the ninth anniversary of the abduction of the Chibok girls that the majority of the girls were thought to have been relocated from Nigeria to areas near Lake Chad, far from the areas where successful interventions that led to the earlier release of other Chibok girls could have been made.
He claims that the majority of the remaining girls have been so involved with the terrorists that they have had up to three children.
Suleiman said that even if the females were offered “freedom,” they were unlikely to accept it.
He bemoaned the fact that the attention paid to the remaining Chibok girls had diminished with time, making it less likely that any more of the girls would be persuaded to come home.
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“Unlike the earlier years following the abductions, attention has radically shifted from the girls, such that until you called to ask for an update, I didn’t even remember that it’s nine years today,” the activist told journalists.
“Attacks have continued since the Chibok girls’ time; even depressingly so,” Suleiman observed.
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