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Tag: Chibok

  • Chibok: Foundation urges military not to relent

    Following release of 21 Chibok girls, Global Excellence Foundation (GEF) has challenged the military to build on the success in the fight against Boko Haram and ensure that every Nigerian held captive by the terrorist group is freed.

    Speaking with reporters yesterday in Abuja , GEF’s Country Director Prof Ola Yemi said there were people held by Boko Haram but have not enjoyed the media attention of Chibok girls.

    Yemi hailed President Muhammadu Buhari for fulfilling his campaign promise of securing release of the girls.

    He said: “We, however, want to appeal to the military to remain focused on neutralising the threat posed by unrepentant Boko Haram terrorist – those that have refused being part of the talks with the government. The negotiations must not be allowed to become a cover for those patently evil to regroup while we are rejoicing the release of the captive girls.

    “The reality is that the insurgency is not over until the last of the hardened terrorists has given up their weapons. Our challenge, therefore, is for the military to remain focused as victory is not secured until all is over.

    “The military must, under the development, re-assess its promise to rescue the last person held hostage by the terrorists. We say this because there are people that are still held by Boko Haram that are not known to the public because they do not enjoy the kind of media attention around the released girls.

    “This will be consistent with the more than 5,000 persons troops have freed from Boko Haram’s captivity

    ‘’We want to appeal to wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari to galvanise women support for her husband. Her recent interview in which she alluded to withdrawing support for President Buhari in 2019 is a distraction that is not needed at this moment. The hectic fallout from her interview detracted from the joy of the girls’ release.”

  • Chibok girls: Negotiation with Boko Haram yielding result – Minister

    Chibok girls: Negotiation with Boko Haram yielding result – Minister

    Following the release of 21 girls abducted by Boko Haram sect at Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State in April 2014, Minister, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajia Aisha Jummai Alhassan has hinged their release on the ongoing negation with the sect by the Federal government.

    The Minister, who sated this Thursday in Kaduna while fielding questions from newsmen at the grand finale of a week-long 16th Regular National Council of Women Affairs and Social Development held at Hassan Katsina House, Kawo, Kaduna State, expressed optimism that the negotiation would further secure the release of the remaining girls from their abductors’ den.

    She said, “I was so excited to hear that 21 of our girls have been freed and that was why I have to break the programme. We thank God for their release. I equally thank the Federal government for spoken and providing enabling environment for negotiation with Boko Haram to secure their release. We have started seeing the result of the negotiation coming and with God; we will see the remaining girls”.

    On the women affairs programme, she said the National Center for Women Development (NCWD), has again outlined modules to train additional 10,000 female IDPs between now and December 2017.

    She hopes and expected that the states will give maximum support for the numerous programmes and projects being enumerated at the federal level, by replacing same in the states to ensure sustainability.

    “President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to addressing the special needs of vulnerable groups in Nigeria, especially women, children, children, elderly persons living with disability and internally displaced persons”, the Minister explained.

    In her own address, Kaduna State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajia Rabi Abdulsalam said, the current administration of Governor Nasir El-Rufai places high priority in the welfare of children, women and youths respectively hence the greater involvement of women to drive such course as key stakeholders.

    According to the Commissioner, the theme of the year’s meeting, “Inclusive Empowerment; a Key to Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals Milestone”, was timely considering the present economic situation of the country on one hand, and how women have proven to be worthy partners in progress, noted if well harnessed, would change the economy of the country for better.

    “This ministry has made conscious and deliberate efforts to better the lives of women in Kaduna; we have worked closely with our development partners in the last one year and have been able to achieve so much”.

    She said the ministry hosted a Gender and Business Dialogue (GAB) platform on 29th October 2015, all about discovering the great women entrepreneurial both in the city and those in the rural areas, quickly added that the summit has since been result oriented owing to the number of women who now manage their own businesses within and outside the state.

    “When the state government established the Kaduna State Traffic and Environmental Law Enforcement Agency (KASTELEA), it was sensitive enough to give 22% of those that were employed to women. Consider also that in the women and youths in agriculture empowerment, our women are given a matching 50% of those absorbed into the programme supported by the World Bank”, she noted.

    The meeting brought together all the Commissioners of Women Affairs from all the 36 States of the federation and whatever decision arrived at the end of the meeting would be put together for the implementation by federal government while states government domesticate same in their respective states.

     

  • Chibok: Blame game and politics of rescue

    The continuous captivity of about 200 Chibok school girlscaptured from their hostel since February 15, 2014 by a group of fanatical anarchists called Boko Haram terrorists has become a festering sore and a moral burden on the Nigerian state as hope wanes on the ability of the government to rescue them alive and intact.  The narrative has remained the same since the dithering former President Jonathan’s reaction of mum and denial and the jelly-footed, lethargic response of the security forces and the intelligence community. But for the steadfast and constant reminder of the Bring Back our Girls (BBOG) campaign group that took the campaign to the global stage, the nation would have gone to sleep as usual and forgotten about them.  No state in history has ever failed her people like the fate of these innocent Nigerians; whatever we do today, it is too little too late.  Our government has continued to vigorously pursue their release onlyat seminars, symposia and pages of newspapers by trading blames and speculating.

    Nobody appears to still have any clue of their condition and whereabouts; not even the ubiquitous intelligence community that could sniff out fresh wads of dough in the boots of cars during elections.  It is a shame that we are still living in delusion that foreign intelligence and American commandos as our development partners would come and rescue the girls for us.  The sad thing is that it only dawned on us in the face of the insurgency in the North-east that our security forces have become partisan and fractious, lacking the appetite to fight and fulfil their traditional roles.  They have become bogged down and distracted by undue political meddlesomeness.  This is the reason why with all our God-given resources as a nation, we are still not able to build capacity and equip our security forces and the intelligence community to help us fight insecurity, which insurgency is just an aspect.  Rather than invest in equipment, the politicians and some of the commanders at the Military High Command looted money meant to buy equipment to prosecute the war leaving the military humiliated and the nation embarrassed.

    There have been hostage situations in other countries in the world and at every such occasion those states have always risen to the occasion and conducted immediate rescue operation through their security forces.  In April 2004, the Russian Federation was jolted by the siege on the Beslan School in the Chechnya region where over 800 people, most of them children, were taken hostage by terrorists.  The drama and agony lasted for only 72 hours and the nation had its peace while 31 of the 32 hostage takers were killed and one arrested.  There were collateral damages and the parents and nation were not kept in suspense and the message was sent to the spine of all who may have such sinister motive that the country was equal to the task.

    Rather than take the bull by the horn, the capturing of the Chibok girls and insurgency have thrown up all manners of experts debating on terrorism, parroting theories that have taken us nowhere.  Terrorism or insurgency is an unorthodox warfare that our security forces very well know.  The whole world is watching with disbelieve as we debate and sing discordant tunes on the where about of the girls;  whether they are still safe and alive or whether they are intact or married off or as the video showed by the insurgents recently, whether they have been killed by air strike by the Nigerian Air Force.

    We are told the girls are still in the Sambisa forest.  All the excuses and foot-dragging are signatures of failure and unacceptable.  Sambisa forest is not an evil forest populated with gnomes and characters from Soyinka’s, “A Forest of a Thousand Demons”.  If the insurgents could establish their stronghold in the place, there is no earthly reason why our security forces after two years have not been able to smoke them out whether they are living in bunkers or holes.

    It is astonishing that our leaders are still prevaricating instead of summoning the political will to deal decisively with the terrorists once and for all, while we allow any collateral damage to heal with time rather than to continue to be the laughing stock of the world as a big for nothing country.

    Nigeria had faced similar crises of insecurity in the past and the armed forces had acquitted themselves creditably well. They successfully prosecuted the Nigerian Civil War whose scale cannot be compared with the Boko Haram insurgents.  In 1980, the Nigerian Armed Forces helped to put down a fanatical religious insurgent movement, “Maitatsine” in Kano led by a Cameroonian called Muhammadu Marwa. In 2004, a self-styled Taliban staged attacks against police personnel and installations in North-east and attempted to establish stronghold in the Mandara Mountains between Nigeria and Cameroon.  The military came in and flushed out the bandits with little or no casualty recorded on its side.  In the sub-region, the Nigerian armed forces have been hailed to high heavens in their exemplary feat in combat.  Indeed, the Nigerian military had always projected itself in positive light and beyond any appearance of   political partisanship but not any longer as it now  engaged in political tuff against itself;  helping  or providing  protection  and  cover for one political party or the other, thereby losing its credibility and respect.

    A good military should be apolitical but patriotic.  It is training, equipment and the ability to drive the equipment when it matters that makes a soldier; it is not the uniform as the hood does not make the monk.

    We have gone beyond what the last government did or failed to do as this has been settled by the Nigerian people in the last election; this government should be focused on concrete deliverables rather than dwelling and blaming past regimes. The government should not see the BBOG group as irritants because they are acting as the conscience of the nation.  If we are beginning to see them as becoming political arising from recent demand for the President to resign, the ruling APC has been the greatest beneficiaries of their politics and campaign.  We should remember that if we do not like the way we look in the mirror, breaking the mirror does not change anything, we have to change ourselves.  The blame-game has become too monotonous; the President should give a matching order to the security forces of which he is the Commander-in-Chief to put an end to the Chibok girls  nightmare one way or the other.

     

    • KebonkwuEsq, writes from Abuja.
  • Chibok: govt unfair to us

    Chibok: govt unfair to us

    Parents of the abducted Chibok girls have accused the Federal Government of being unfair to them.

    Mother of Dorcas Yakubu, the Chibok girl who spoke in the recent Boko Haram video, said the government promised not to end the fight against Boko Haram until the girls return but now it celebrates its victory without rescuing them.

    She added that the girls’ parents view the interview with Amina Ali Nkeki in foreign media as  exploitation by the government for emotional and political mileage following the outrage that greeted the recently released Boko Haram video.

    Esther Yakubu spoke yesterday in Abuja during a march on the Presidential Villa by members of the #BringBackOurGirls (#BBOG) advocacy, who were barred by security agencies.

    She said: “They said that they have won the war against terror but the President promised us that the fight against terror will not be over until the Chibok girls are back. Now they celebrate winning the war without our daughters back. It is unfair.

    “We wish to state our dissatisfaction on the recent exposure of Amina Ali Nkeki to media against the advice of our leaders in Abuja to the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) . We had earlier on made our position known to the Federal Government that in the event of our girls rescue/release, we all want their privacy protected, aside making their release known to the public.

    “The recently released video should provoke the Federal Government and its security apparatus to action to rescue the remaining 218 girls and not interviews of a traumatised girl recovering from abuses and trauma from the exploitation for emotional and political mileage following the outrage that greeted the recently released Boko Haram video. It should not be repeated until she is fully recovered and reunited with her family and integrated into her community.”

    Members of the #BBOG advocacy demanded that the government should constitute a #ChibokGirls rescue operation monitoring team to act as a transparent mechanism for feedback on evidence of the President’s sustained action towards the rescue of the girls.

    The group also advised the President to pursue the lowest risk option available in assessing the risk factors involved in the rescue mission and adopt the best solution to rescue the girls.

    #BBOG added that the President should immediately call a National Emergency in the Northeast Conference to articulate a cohesive response plan to the humanitarian crises in the area and designate a special envoy responsible to the inter-agency collaborative work required.

    #BBOG Strategic Team leader Aisha Yesufu read a statement in which she said that they will continue to march on the Villa every 72 hours until persuasive actions become evident to all.

    She stated: “We begin with an acknowledgement of our soldiers, the Multi National Joint Task Force and the Civilian JTF. The bravery and resilience of these gallant men at the front lines has led to the return of thousands of our citizens who hitherto were never declared missing or unaccounted for. It is the successes of these often uncelebrated heroes that has brought us to the imminent return of our #ChibokGirls.

    “Today, 861 days since the abduction of our girls, time has completely run out. It is time to Decide, Act and bring them home! NO MORE DELAYS!!!

    “Since Mr. President’s last public statement on the missing source of credible and actionable intelligence to #BringBackOurGirls during our visit of January 14th 2016, three (3) successive opportunity windows mean we cannot continue to put off a decision on their rescue.

    “When the ‘proof of life’ video (released by CNN on 14th April 2016) was dismissed on the premise that the authenticity of the source could not be ascertained, we charged that every source of intelligence must be treated as actionable, an authentication process adopted and leads pursued to logical conclusions. This however did not happen.

    “The return of our #ChibokGirl, Amina Ali, on May 18th 2016, her revelations and details of the state of our girls, provided a source of first-person intelligence which should have inspired decisive action. Again, this did not materialise.

    “The release of the ‘plea for rescue’ video on August 14th 2016 and its corroboration of Amina’s revelations must now be the final part of the decision-making requirements.

    “Today, we have as much information to take a decision as may ever be possible. Three (3) options are available for the rescue of our #ChibokGirls – the use of military force, negotiation of release or a combination of both. We acknowledge that each option comes with inherent risks, but also understand that the Nigerian State has all the capabilities to assess these risks and adopt a best solution to #BringBackOurGirls.

    “We believe that to improve the probability of success in the pursuit of options of rescue, our Federal Government would need the capabilities and experiences of our international friends. We therefore call on President Barack Obama of the United States, Prime Minister Theresa May of the United Kingdom, President Hollande of France, Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, in particular to support Nigeria with all their military and intelligence assets to rescue or secure the release of OUR #ChibokGirls. Chibok Girls are Global Citizens and their non-rescue is a big blot on our global civilisation as represented by the leadership of these nations and other members of the United Nations. We call on all these global leaders to help Bring Back Our Girls and defend our shared humanity.

    “President Muhammadu Buhari cannot anymore be unclear on what decision to make on the option to pursue for their rescue. We reject the recurrent excuses by Mr. President that the Federal Government does not know which faction of the splintered terrorist group it should engage in negotiations. Our Federal Government must never again sound incapable of intelligence and negotiation expertise.

    “We demand that our President immediately leads his military and intelligence team to make a decision and swiftly pursue the lowest risk option out of the three possibilities. We caution against a repeat of the bureaucratic inertia and inter-agency squabbles that have paralyzed a mandatory coordinated, coherent, target, focused and sustained engagement for ending this tragedy.

    “There are two other issues of deep concern to our Movement. The first is what we consider a slow and ineffectual response to the tragedy in the Internally Displaced Peoples’ camps in the North East and Reconstruction of communities for return of the dislocated. The second is the prosecution of corrupt cases associated with the counter insurgency war of the Federal Government.

    “It is unacceptable that continuous calls from the humanitarian community and relief organizations for a deliberate and urgent response to the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the North East have so far met utter silence. Mr. President, no leader in the 21st Century should be silent in the face of imminent death for what has been estimated as about 500,000 of its citizens, especially with the images and abundance of evidence of this possibility.

    “In light of revelations of diversion of arms procurement funds which should have early on in the crisis helped to avert this disaster, we call for a deliberate hastening of the trials and conviction of guilty persons, within legal provisions. This is the only way we can begin to bring justice to our fellow citizens whose human and material losses cannot even begin to be estimated.

    “Here are our SPECIFIC DEMANDS:

    “That Mr. President should swiftly make a firm decision for their immediate rescue based on the three available options. 1. Military operation. 2. Negotiation with the Terrorists. 3. Combination of 1 and 2. With all the information available, the President must pursue the lowest risk option of these three.

    “That Mr. President addresses Nigerians on his Rescue Plan and Timelines of our #ChibokGirls TODAY.

    “That Mr. President immediately constitutes a #ChibokGirls Rescue Operation Monitoring Team made up of representatives of Federal Government, parents of Chibok Girls, KADA Community and #BringBackOurGirls. This multi-stakeholders platform should act as a transparent mechanism for feedback on evidence of Mr. President’s sustained action towards bringing back OUR #ChibokGirls.

    “Mr. President should immediately preside over National Emergency in the North East Conference to articulate a cohesive response plan to the humanitarian crisis and designate a “Special Envoy” responsible for the inter-agency collaborative work required, as well as mobilise the private sector, Nigerian public, and the International Community.

    “That Mr. President direct the Attorney General and EFCC to set up Special Desk with the responsibility for fast-tracking the trials of the Arms Procurement Fund and providing regular updates. We reject any suspension or termination of any of the trials without reaching a legal conclusion.

    “That the Chief Justice of the Federation prioritises the trials of all Counter-Insurgency related corruption cases. Cases should be placed on fast-track with no long adjournments.

    “Mr. President must NOW exercise firm and dedicated leadership on rescuing OUR #ChibokGirls just as he would do were the girls his own daughters.

    “In conclusion, our Movement shall monitor the response of Mr. President and shall return on a march to the Villa every seventy two (72) hours until persuasive actions become evident to all. This is especially necessary because, so far, our one-week monitoring effort has not revealed empirical evidence that actions are being taken since the ‘plea for rescue’ video was released on Sunday August 14th.”

  • Govt unfair to us, says Chibok girls parents

    … parents accuse govt of diverting attention with Amina Ali interview
    …#BBOG demands govt sets up monitoring team on Chibok girls
     Parents of the abducted Chibok girls have accused the Federal Government of being unfair to them.
    Mother of Dorcas Yakubu, the Chibok girl who spoke in the recent Boko Haram video stated that the government was claiming victory in the battle against the insurgents despite the inability to rescue the girls.
    Esther Yakubu stated spoke with newsmen on Monday  in Abuja during a march to the Villa by members of the #BringBackOurGirls (#BBOG) advocacy, which was barred by security agencies.
     “They said that they have won the war against terror but the President promised us that the fight against terror will not be over unless the Chibok girls are back, but now they are celebrating winning the terror without our daughters back, it is unfair.
    “We wish to state our dissatisfaction on the recent exposure of Amina Ali Nkeki to media against the advice of our leaders in Abuja to the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA)  which we earlier on made our position known to the Federal Government that in the event of our girls rescue/release, we all want their privacy protected aside making their release known to the public.
    “The recently released video should provoke the Federal Government and it’s security apparatus to action to rescue the remaining 218 girls and not interviews of a traumatised girl recovering from abuses and trauma from the exploitation for emotional and political mileage following the outrage that greeted the recently released Boko Haram video and should not be repeated until she is fully recovered and reunited with her family and integrated into her community.”
    During the march, members of the #BBOG advocacy demanded that the government constitute a #ChibokGirls rescue operation monitoring team to act as a transparent mechanism for feedback on evidence of the presidents sustained action towards the rescue of the girls.
    The group also advised the president to pursue the lowest risk option available in accessing the risk factors involved in the rescue mission and adopt the best solution to rescue the Chibok girls.
    #BBOG added that the President should immediately preside over National Emergency in the North East Conference to articulate a cohesive response plan to the humanitarian crises and designate a special envoy responsible to the inter-agency collaborative work required.

     

  • Chibok community hails govt, landlords of rescued girls

    Members of the Chibok community under the umbrella body of the Kibaku Area Development Association (KADA) have lauded the Federal Government for rehabilitating the two rescued Chibok school girls, Amina Nkeki and Sarah Luka.

    According to the community, the leaders who were given access to the girls have confirmed the government’s handling of the Psycho-social Counseling and Reintegration Process of the girls.

    The community is also appreciative of the government’s return to the reconstruction of the Chibok secondary school which was burnt down more than two years ago by insurgents.

    It urged the government and the international community to fast track the reconstruction of the school and build an additional one to cater for the educational needs of the teeming school age children in the area.

    Chairman, KADA, Abuja Branch, Tsambido Abana, yesterday said: “On a sad note however, we are once again expressing our deep concern over the continued inability of the Government to rescue the remaining 218 abducted girls particularly in light of the recent information provided by Amina Ali Nkeki. Since Amina was rescued on May 17th 2016, we are not aware of further effort on the part of the Government towards rescuing the remaining girls.

    “With the deployment of the Multinational Joint Task Force and relocation of Training Squad from Kontogora to Buni Yadi, we feel that these developments will add impetus to the effort of the Government.  We plead and urge the Government, International Community and Civil Society Organizations to intensify effort towards the rescue of the schoolgirls who are victims of circumstance and return them to their communities soonest.

    “The third issue is the inordinate delay in the reconstruction of the destroyed School, where the girls were abducted. It is worthy to note that this is the only Secondary School in the whole of the Local Government Area but was destroyed by the insurgents on the fateful day of the abduction. In April 14th, 2015, the Federal Government made an apparent effort to rebuild the school by taking some building materials to the site but since then, it suffered set back and stagnation. The parents of the abducted girls and leaders of the community made an appeal to the Federal Government delegation that visited Chibok on 14th April, 2016 on the occasion of the two-year commemoration of the abduction. This plea and other similar efforts made by the Chibok resident in Abuja and the community did not produce the desired result at the appropriate time.”

  • The Chibok Archipelago

    There cannot be a more graphic way to situate the Chibok debacle than to drink from the fount of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn who captured the horrors of Soviet political prisoners in his book, The Gulag Archipelago.

    But you would think that Hardball is merely exploiting the sound and cadences of Solzhenitsyn’s great book to tell the Chibok story. No. Similarities abound not just in tonality but in the depth of psychological trauma of the victims of both situations and eras. Consider the official sleight of hand and a failure of intelligence both mental and architectural in both narratives.

    While Solzhenitsyn’s Archipelago, published in 1973 is about the forced labour camps of Russia’s dark Stalinist era which damaged and dehumanised citizens of conscience, Chibok’s archipelago is of a slightly different hue.

    Chibok is the story of failed elite in a semi-failed state using her citizen as fodder for their eternal folly. Chibok is the modern gulag where grubby leaders dispose of their citizens like refuse.

    To put Chibok in perspective, on April 14, 2014, about 276 (exact number still unknown) girls were abducted from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State by a minor terror group known as Boko Haram.

    Since then, most of the girls – over 200 – remain missing.

    Last week, there were bold newspaper headlines to the effect that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved fresh probe of missing Chibok girls. According to the report, the President had in January ordered his security adviser to set up a committee to carry out a fresh investigation into the circumstance of the Chibok bungle.

    There had been uproar during the first year anniversary of the government when no concrete report was issued on the girls. It was always the same lax way manner of the former President Goodluck Jonathan. Several weeks rolled by before his government woke up to the reality of a possible abduction and it took immense international pressure and a global campaign to stir ex-President Jonathan to a grudging action.

    A 26-member committee was set up then to investigate the abduction and ascertain the exact number of missing students. This committee had reported that there were 276 girls and that 57 managed to escape. But that was as much light as was shed on the great Chibok mystery.

    Here are some benumbing posers: these were supposedly final year students of a government school; how come they cannot be identified with some exactitude? If as many as 56 girls escaped, how come they did not serve as lead to tracing some of the missing girls?

    Finally, how could a band of terrorists move so large a number of people in the early days without trail by Nigeria’s intelligence corps? Let us compare for a moment the trauma of the parents and siblings of the missing girls to that of those labourers of the Russian Gulag of yore and you will agree that the Chibok narrative is wrought in the archipelagos of the mind.

    • CORRECTION: Prince Tony Momoh was Information Minister under President Ibrahim Babangida and not Muhammadu Buhari as Hardball mistakenly stated last Thursday. Error regretted.
  • Chibok girl Amina for rehab

    Chibok girl Amina for rehab

    •Sarah Luka too

    Mohammad Hayyatu, the self-acclaimed husband of a rescued Chibok girl, Amina Ali Nkeki, has been taken into military custody for interrogation, The Nation learnt yesterday.

    The young mother will be sent to a special rehabilitation centre.

    Hayyatu is being treated as a suspected Boko Haram terrorist. Intelligence officers have been grilling him.

    Hayyatu might be separated with Amina and her baby for life if he is found culpable of dastardly conduct as a Boko Haram “commander”.

    For security reasons, the 19-year old Amina will be put in a rehabilitation facility with her mother to enable her take care of her baby.

    It was gathered that a rehabilitation facility has been built for strategic victims of Boko Haram, especially the Chibok girls.

    A top military source said: “Hayyatu is being treated as a Boko Haram commander and he is being interrogated at a military facility. He is a suspected insurgent and if he is culpable of all these atrocities, he will face trial accordingly.

    “The military has detained him for profiling by the Intelligence Unit. He can be released only if at the end of the day he is innocent.

    “With this development, there is no opportunity of reuniting with Amina or the baby.”

    On the girl from GSS Chibok, Sarah Luka, the military source said: “Once we rescue Boko Haram victims, we hand them over to relevant civil authorities and agencies. She will also undergo a rehabilitation process like Amina.”

    Amina will be put in a designated rehabilitation facility alongside her mother.

    Another source said: “For security reasons, we will relocate Amina and the mother to a safe rehabilitation facility which has been created by the government. I cannot tell you whether this rehabilitation facility is in Abuja or Maiduguri.

    “What is important is that they will be put in a facility where Amina can be psychologically secured and under the guidance of her mother because she is a kid-mother. The facility will enable her to raise her child under the care of her mum.

    “We have to work on her psyche to forget about this forceful marriage, the trauma in Sambisa Forest and to allow her to think of how to go back to school for a brighter future.”

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday assured Amina of the best medical and emotional care.

    He said: “Although, we cannot do anything to reverse the horrors of her past, the Federal Government can and will do everything possible to ensure that the rest of her life takes a completely different course.

    “Amina will get the best care that the Nigerian government can afford. We will ensure that she gets the best medical, emotional and whatever care that she requires to get full recovery and be integrated into the society.”

  • Buhari’s aide praises military for rescuing Chibok girls

    Buhari’s aide praises military for rescuing Chibok girls

    The Special Assistant to the President on Youth and Students Affairs, Nasir Sai’du Adhama, has commended Nigerian troops for their successful operations in the rescue of two Chibok girls, Amina Ali and Serah Luka.

    Adhama, who made the commendation at the State House, Abuja said the development has opened a new vista of hope in the ongoing efforts to rescue the rest of abducted Chibok girls.

    “We celebrate with the families of the rescued girls and commend the gallantry of the Nigerian troops and the Civilian Joint Task Force in trying to end the insurgency in the North East of Nigeria”, he said.

    In a release sent by his media aide, Gidado Yushau Shuaib, Adhama called on Nigerians to continue to give their support to the troops as government has intensified the search and rescue of the remaining girls.

    He said that his office strongly warns against stigma or discrimination against the Chibok girls when they return.

    Adhama also assured Nigerians of the federal government’s support to ensure the safety and rehabilitation of the rescued girls.

    He said; “The continuation of education of the rescued and freed captives, which has been disrupted, will definitely be a priority. They must be encouraged to go back to school and this will be some of the majority priorities.”

    He joined Nigerians and well-wishers in the international community to pray for the safe return of other abducted women and children.

    Adhama added that the development “would strengthen our collective belief that our missing Chibok girls that are still held hostage will eventually be rescued”.

  • Another Chibok girl Sarah Luka rescued, 35 terrorists killed

    Another Chibok girl Sarah Luka rescued, 35 terrorists killed

    The Nigerian Army Thursday night said troops have rescued another Chibok girl, Sarah Luka and killed 35 Boko Haram insurgents during the operations.
    The Acting Director Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman, who made the disclosure said verification showed that the girl is number 157 among the 219 Chibok girls in captivity.
    She was a Junior Secondary School 1 student at the time if her abduction with others.
    The statement said: “At about 11.00am today, Thursday, 19th May 2016, troops of 231 Battalion, 331 Artillery Regiment (AR), Detachment of Armed Forces Special Forces (AFSF) 2, Explosive Ordinance (EOD) Team and Civilian Vigilante group of Buratai, conducted clearance operations at Shettima Aboh, Hong and Biladdili general area in Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State.
    “During the operations, the troops killed 35 Boko Haram terrorists and recovered several arms and ammunitions and other items. In addition, they rescued 97 women and children held captives by the Boko Haram terrorists.
    “We are glad to state that among those rescued is a girl believed to be one of the Chibok Government Secondary School girls that were abducted on 14th April 2014 by the Boko Haram terrorists.
    “Her name is Miss Serah Luka, who is number 157 on the list of the abducted school girls. She is believed to be the daughter of Pastor Luka.
    “During debriefing the girl revealed that she was a JSS1 student of the school at the time they were abducted.
    “She further added that she hails from Madagali, Adamawa State. She averred that she reported at the school barely two months and one week before her unfortunate abduction along with other girls over two years ago.
    “She added that there other three girls who fled from Shettima Aboh when the troops invaded the area earlier today which led to their rescue.
    “She is presently receiving medical attention at the medical facility of Abogo Largema Cantonment, Biu, Borno State.”