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Tag: Dapchi

  • Chibok, Dapchi representatives visit Synagogue to pray for release of Leah Sharibu, others

    Representatives of Chibok in Borno and Dapchi in Yobe yesterday sought spiritual help at The Synagogue, the Church of All Nations, at Ikotun-Egbe, Lagos. They prayed for the release of Leah Sharibu and other pupils kidnapped by Boko Haram.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the representatives, who carried several placards told the General Overseer, Temitope Joshua, that they were at his church because they had exhausted all human efforts to get the pupils released.

    Their spokesman told Joshua that the father of Leah Sharibu could not come with them because he had been bedridden by stroke, as a result of the kidnap of her daughter.

    He said they had been watching the church activities  through a  cable television, hence their joint visit to plead for intercessory prayers.

    The spokesman said they had no doubt that with the approval of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God could trigger the release of the remaining pupils kidnapped in 2014 and 2018.

    The cleric told them that there was nothing impossible in the sight of the Creator of Heaven and Earth.

    He urged the congregation to pray and fast on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, for the release of the remaining schoolgirls.

    He said: “There is nothing God cannot do” and urged all to see the prayer and fasting on the mentioned days as an assignment.

    Some of the placards read: “Please intercede on our behalf for the release of Leah Sharibu, “The remaining 112 students kidnapped in Chibok are yet to be released, please help, among others.

    On April 14, 2014, 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped from the Government Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State.

    Responsibility for the kidnappings was claimed by Boko Haram, a terrorist organisation operating in Northeastern.

    Since 2014, 164 of the girls had regained their freedom, while 112 are still being held by Boko Haram.

    Also on February 19, last year, no fewer than 110 schoolgirls were kidnapped by the insurgents from the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi, located in Bulabulin, Yunusari Local Government area of Yobe State.

    One hundred and nine of them  were released, except Leah Sharibu, who was said to have refused to denounce her religion.

  • Amidst hope and despair, Dapchi awaits the return of Leah

    Almost one year after it crashed into national and global consciousness following the school girls’ abduction saga, the mood in Dapchi, a sleepy town in Yobe State, northeastern Nigeria, swings between despair and hope, as the community awaits the return of Leah Sharibu. Joel Duku reports.

    DAPCHI in Yobe State has clearly recovered from its darkest day – February 19, 2018, when Boko Haram insurgents invaded the town and carted away over one hundred school girls at the Government Science Technical College.

    Most of them were returned after one month in captivity; five reportedly died. Leah, the only Christian girl in the group was held back by the insurgents for refusing to renounce her Christian faith and embrace Islam.

    Leah’s continued stay in the hands of Boko Haram remains the worry for many residents of Dapchi, if not the entire community. Many have engaged in fervent prayers asking God to touch the hearts of her captors to release the innocent girl.

    Other residents are unimpressed that the promises of the Federal Government have not translated into concrete action leading to the release of Leah. Their fear is that time may be running out for the freedom of the girl.

    The Secretary, Association of Dapchi Abducted School Girls’ Parents (ADASGP), Bukar Kachalla, said some of them cannot behave like normal human beings with Leah Sharibu still in the hands of Boko Haram.

    “You know, when we formed this association, our clear mandate was that we will not rest until all the girls regained freedom from the hands of the Boko Haram insurgents. Thank God that some of our daughters were returned and we jubilated over that.

    “But today, we are still faced with the problem of Leah Sharibu still held by Boko Haram.  We cannot behave like normal human beings because Leah is still in the custody of Boko Haram. This is our greatest problem today,” Kachalla stated.

    Kachalla’s worst fear for Leah is the kind of trauma, she may be undergoing and the influence the insurgents could be having on her. He is equally disturbed by the traumatic and psychological torture that Leah’s parents have been subjected to since her abduction.

    He said: “What worries me is that whosoever spends those number of days with the militants is dangerous because somehow you will be influenced. Our leaders and those negotiating Leah’s release should know this. Every minute, second and day spent in the negotiation is a delay and it’s not good for that little girl.

    “We are always going to her parents and they are not okay. The mother is not eating. She is always crying. She does not even eat food again. What is happening? We are in a dark room. We don’t know what government is doing. They should come out and tell us what is happing because they keep coming and going, making promises. We need to know what is happening. We don’t want Leah to spend a year in the hands of those insurgents. We want her released now without delay.”

    Adamu Abubakar is a trader in Dapchi who witnessed the emotions that heralded the return of the Dapchi girls by Boko Haram on March 31, 2018. He is always imagining what the Leah’s family are going through having fixed their minds on what he described as an “uncertain hope”.

    “With the government’s empty promises about Leah’s release from unstable people like Boko Haram, I see Leah’s parents holding unto an unsure hope. But for us as a community, it is very sad that the little girl is still in the hands of Boko Haram. I saw how parents were crying in tears even when their children were brought back. You can imagine a parent that his or her child is still held by Boko Haram for this long. As a community, we need to give this family the support they require but government has a big role to play to secure the freedom of Leah,” Abubakar said. Alhaji Bashi Manzo, chairman of ADASGP wants the Federal Government to intensify efforts to free Leah irrespective of the girl’s social status or family background.

    “I think the Federal Government is not doing enough to rescue this girl. If she was the daughter of a governor or any minister, the government would have done anything to bring her back,” he argued.

    “Some ministers came here and assured that the girl will be brought back. From their statement it was as if Leah will be back in less than one week but up till now we have not heard any positive news.

    “Rather, just a few days after their visit, Hauwa Liman was killed.  It is sad that this girl is still in the hands of dangerous people. It looks like the government is just fooling us. If the thing is beyond them, they should come out and tell the world the truth and stop hiding under this pretext.

    “Let the Federal government tell us the truth. If they should tell us that they cannot do it, then we the parents can gather and see whether we can go to Sambisa Forest and have talks with Boko Haram concerning Leah,” Manzo said

    Manzo also took a swipe at the Federal and Yobe State Governments for neglecting the parents of the girls that died during abduction, regretting that, “both the Federal Government and the government of Yobe State don’t care about the parents of the girls that died in the custody of Boko Haram when they were abducted.

    “Nobody has sent a condolence message or paid any sympathy visit to any parents. They have just been left at their mercies. Some of the parents cannot no longer maintain their families because of the trauma they underwent. We are grateful to UNICEF who came and visited the parents that lost their children, but no thanks to government of Yobe and the Federal Government”.

    The bid to understand Leah’s spiritual life that produced such strong will to resist the proposal of the insurgents, thus earning herself an elongated captivity, led this reporter to her church, Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) located almost opposite, GGSTC, the school where Leah was kidnapped along with other girls about ten months ago.

    Her pastor, Rev. Daniel Auta, informed this reporter that Leah is sorely missed in her ECWA Church where she had been a very active member – particularly at the Sunday School and in the choir. Auta, who said that hope for Leah’s release was hinged on prayers by the Christian and Muslim communities and good people in the town, added that the church, made up of about 80 worshippers, was missing Leah’s commitment to their youth programmes as well.

    “She is a great source of encouragement and inspiration to the choir and the youth in the church. Her absence has even weakened the entire choir as well as affected the morale of the church in Dapchi. But we remain strong, praying for her safe return from the hands of the insurgents,” he said.

    “We have been fasting and praying since the day she was abducted, and we will not stop until she returns.

    He added: “Leah was a very good girl. She was very dedicated to the church. She doesn’t come late to the church. She was a girl that gives out everything that she has to this church at her own level. Very quiet and calm girl with the fear of God and respect for elders. She was like a shining example for the other little ones and her peers in the church. We appreciate her activities here in the church and the Sunday School”.

    Auta also confirmed Leah’s spiritual development, stressing that there was no way she would have renounced her faith even in the face of adversity.

    He stated: “Leah’s spiritually growth was very rapid and steady. She was firm and committed in her activities in the church and everything she does around here. She was such a serious girl that listens to things around her to make meaning out of them. That even attests to the fact that she is still being held by Boko Haram. She was very strong in her faith”.

    Her Sunday School teacher, Godwin Moses Godsday, also testified about Leah Sharibu’s deep spiritual life, respect for elders and commitment to whatever she does.

    “Leah was very good at Sunday School. She does all her homework. She will recite all the memory verses that are given to her perfectly. I never found any fault with her not doing her work at the Sunday School,” he revealed.

    “I taught her for more than two years with her brother Donald at the Sunday school and the rest of the students. She has been wonderful. Leah is a quiet type but a deep thinker, full of respect.  She doesn’t talk too much. She cannot look an elder in the face when talking. She is quite respectful. She does not play during Sunday School or on the street.”

    Though the ordeal of Leah does appear like the storyline in Samuel Beckett’s play, ‘Waiting for Godot’, the family still feel like the two characters, ‘Didi’ and ‘Gogo’ who never saw Godot, yet remained optimistic that he will surely arrive.

    Leah’s Pastor, Rev. Auta sums up their attitude this way: “As the Scriptures say, “He that is in Leah is greater than he that is in the world.”.

  • New harvests crash prices of foodstuff in Yobe

    Prices of foodstuff have crumbled in Yobe  as farmers in the state commenced the harvesting of their produce.

    Our reporter’s checks revealed that a bag of millet which used to sell between N11, 000 and N12, 000 is now sold between N6, 500 and N7,000.

    Malam Hassan Umar, a grain dealer in Gashua, said the new harvests had crashed the price of millet which is the staple food of the people.

    ‘‘Last week a bag of newly harvested millet was sold at N8,000 as against N10,000 three weeks ago, but it dropped to N6,000 at the Ngalda market this week.’’

    Read Also:Yobe North : ‘My bills will focus on poverty alleviation’

    He said the old stock, because of the high demand for it, was still sold at N8, 000.

    Musa Kabiru, another grain merchant in Damaturu, said the price was expected to crash further before stabilising at N5, 000 per bag.

    Meanwhile, farmers who spoke to our reporter in Damaturu, Bursari and Bade Local Government Areas, are celebrating the bumper harvests.

    Abba Usman, a farmer in Dapchi, said the harvests this season were very good and with high yields.

    ‘‘Unlike last year when the rains stopped early, the rains have been excellent this year, it’s still raining even when the crops are mature,’’ he said.

    Bukar Mohammed, another farmer, said there are possibilities of harvesting more beans and groundnuts far more than what was obtained in the 2017 season.

  • Former Mauritius President meets Chibok, Dapchi girls’ parents

    The Former President of Mauritius, Prof. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, is meeting with some parents of the yet to be released Chibok and Dapchi girls’  in Lagos.

    The closed door meeting holding at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, was convened by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Murtala Muhammed Foundation (MMF), Mrs Aisha Muhammed-Oyebode.

    At least 10 parents of the yet to be released girls were in the meeting which started at about 7.15 p.m.

    Gurib-Fakim is expected to deliver a keynote address at the 2018 Murtala Muhammed Foundation Women Forum on Thursday in Lagos.

    The theme of the forum is “Smart Economics: Empowering Women in a Changing World”. (NAN)

  • Insurgency degrading accounted for Chibok, Dapchi girls release – Buhari

    He said that the routing of the terrorists also accounted for the release of no fewer than 16,000 other persons from their captivity.

    Buhari stated this in a broadcast to mark the 19th year of Nigeria’s democracy and the 3rdanniversary of his administration in Abuja.

    He said that before the inception of his administration, Boko Haram had held large areas of land spanning several local government areas in the North-East.

    He, however, stated that the areas hitherto occupied by the insurgents had been recovered and authority of government re-established.

    The president said that his administration was pained over the loss of lives and properties occasioned by “the carnage of insurgency and other forms of criminality in the country”.

    He assured Nigerians that the Federal Government would not rest until all criminal elements and their sponsors were brought to justice.

    He revealed that government was boosting the capacity of security agencies through recruitment of more personnel, training and procurement of modern equipment, enhancement of intelligence gathering and boosting personnel morale in the face of daunting challenges.

    On the conditions of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Buhari disclosed that the Federal Government had improved the mechanism for the distribution of basic aid, including foods and essential commodities.

    He said that the distribution of the items was being done through various strategies in collaboration with local and international organizations at the IDPs’ camps.

    “In order to minimize the impact of the insurgency on IDPs, government has established camps and has improved the mechanism for the distribution of basic aid, foods and essential commodities.

    “Efforts are in process for resettlement of IDPs in their communities by providing schools, hospitals, clinics, water and sanitation to facilitate quick return to economic activities.

    “Government is similarly implementing de-radicalization and rehabilitation programmes to facilitate sustainable peace and development,’’ he said.

    The president, however, deplored the unfortunate incidents of kidnappings, herdsmen and farmers clashes in several communities which had led to high number of fatalities and loss of properties across the country.

    He re-assured that the security challenges were being addressed and that identified culprits and their sponsors would face the full wrath of the law.

    According to him, the three tiers of government are presently engaged with communities and religious organizations to restore peaceful co-existence among Nigerians.

    Buhari commended members of the Multinational Joint Task Force drawn from Niger, Benin, Chad, Cameroon and Nigerian security agencies in collaboration with the International Community assisting in the fight against insurgency in the North East.

    “I also commend the gallantry of members of our Armed Forces and other security agencies that have continued to provide security for lives and properties across the country.

    The president also noted that state and local traditional authorities had been helping with much needed intelligence in the fight against insurgency in the country.

    He remarked that the Niger Delta had enjoyed relative peace through social inclusiveness and cooperation of the “elders and the good people of the region.’’

    Buhari reaffirmed that his administration was committed to implementing the comprehensive peace, security and development plan for the region.

    “The environmental clean-up of the region which commenced with the launch in Bodo, Ogoni, in June, 2016 is progressing satisfactorily.

    “Furthermore, farming assets are being revived and investors in cocoa and palm oil plantations are showing serious interest,’’ he added. (NAN)

     

  • Gates, Dapchi and human capital development (2)

    It is important that we place things in proper context before running our mouths against Mr. Gates for, some would say, daring to count our ‘nine fingers’ in our presence. Question is: why is the Nigerian elite and its fawning poor scared of being told the glaring truth about the way we ruin our future? We may not like it but the Dapchi girls, like many of us, are the collective victims of a dying health system which Adewole, our own Health Minister, said has not delivered qualitatively from all indicators and with meagre resources allocated, and mostly mismanaged, since May 1999 when democracy was reborn in Nigeria. They are potential startup entrepreneurs or part of the talent pool that the likes of Dangote would readily employ to drive the economy, provided they are allowed to get the basic skills, are in good health with good education to boot. When insurgents are allowed to implant such grave fear in the minds of the parents of these little ones about education, is there any hope that the narrative would change in the year 2050 when, as projected, Nigeria would be the third or fourth largest population in the world?

     

    For those who were not at the venue, Gates’ tone was not that of an arrogant billionaire rubbing the noses of the beneficiaries of his wealth on a rocky plain. Instead, his was an appeal to commonsense. Take, for example, what he said about the plight of the average farmer who, in spite of the availability of internet banking, has no access to any feasible loan initiative to grow his business. Now contrast that to the unlimited access that federal ministers, lawmakers and their cronies have to the banks where they are offered facilities running into billions of naira, just to satisfy their hedonistic taste! Just the other day, a Federal Minister boldly told Nigerians that the multimillion naira mansions linked to him within three years of being in office were procured through bank loans without anyone asking what collateral he deposited for the deal. To a businessman like Gates, this just doesn’t make sense. Unfortunately, that is the story the rest of the world read about us here—-investing in self, like senator who rake home N13.3m monthly as ‘running cost’, rather than on things that would benefit the generality. Gates and other development-minded persons just can’t understand the whole essence of these primitive proclivities in a modern world!

     

    What exactly is Knucklehead driving at in all this? Dapchi should not be another passing phase in our scandalous book of political chicanery and vainglory.  In any case, it shouldn’t have happened if those saddled with the responsibility of keeping the region safe didn’t shirk or abdicate that onerous responsibility. With the Chibok experience still fresh in our memories and the much-touted news of a ‘degraded ’Boko Haram insurgents, how did they regroup and succeeded in inflicting pain and anguish in Dapchi? What could have given them the courage to drive triumphantly into the same territory, playing with the residents and having ‘selfie’ moments with them before barking orders at them to stop sending their children to schools teaching Western education? Where does that leave us in a bid to tap the potentials imbued in our greatest asset as a nation—-the human capital?

     

    By all means possible, the primitive echo of the Boko Haram rant against the education of these young ones should be nipped in the bud. The schools in those areas must be open and made to function because any shut down of education in the region would have direct deleterious impact on the general health of the nation as a whole. In his observation, Gates warned that though the government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) speaks about the need to invest in the people, the “execution priorities don’t fully reflect people’s needs by prioritising physical capital over human capital.” He also noted that to anchor our long-term economic prospects on investments in infrastructure and competitiveness without sundry investments in the people through quality education and health is a recipe for a painfully unsustainable economy. And this, I must say, starts with the kind of scary scenario that played out in Dapchi. It resonates in the fact that these criminal elements are still holding on to Leah Sharibu for insisting on her fundamental rights to freedom of education, association and, above all, religion. That is the dream they want to kill at incubation. That is the fear they plan to inflict on the rest of us. And that is how they hatch the plan to kill our future!

     

    In fact, Vice President Osinbajo’s tokenism of a ‘school feeding programme’ and the “N Power project’ fell far short of the kind of response Gates was expecting. Reiterating his point in an interview with the Cable News Network, Gates said: “As a partner in Nigeria, I am saying that the current plan is inadequate. Nigeria has all these young people and the current quality and quantity of investment in these young generations in health and education just isn’t enough. So I was very direct. If they get health and education right, they will be an engine of growth not just for themselves but for all of Africa.” For me, that is the crux of the matter. We are being told to look into the mirror and confront the uncomfortable realities of the silly choices we are making for a likely blighted future. Sadly, that’s what the elite don’t want to hear.

     

    The Gates some of us abuse today has invested $1.6bn of his personal fortunes in our country all in a bid to improve our human resource. You may wish to contrast that with the billions of dollars that different categories of the nation’s fleecing leaders have creamed off the system building mansions their children would never live in; schools their children would never attend; hospitals they would never be treated in and luxury items that have never quenched an insatiable quest for more hollow acquisitions. In any case, what is $1.6bn compared to what these privileged kleptocrats steal from the national treasury yearly? We completely mix the point when the apologists among us fret nerves against Gates instead of demanding for a paradigm shift in investment in Nigeria’s human resource. How much longer would we continue to shift the blame and hide the truth under this bushel of deceit?

     

    In the course of writing this piece, a friend, Folaranmi Adegbite, reminded me of a blueprint which one of the founding fathers of this great nation, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, scripted and worked with in the then Western Region before greed became the language of politics in both civilian and military circles. “Remember free education, free health care, and rural development? A sage drew the blueprint for these 63 years ago and implemented it at every opportunity he had. He left a legacy of an educated region with potentials……And then the carpetbaggers came with their petro dollars quick money schemes and opulent lifestyles!”

     

    I’m sure we all know when the shoes started pinching us, right? And so, when the dust settles on the fanfare and jamboree with the hosting of the 104 Dapchi girls by President Muhammadu Buhari, I hope the authorities would remember that Bill Gates actually threw the challenge of a prosperous Nigeria back at the leadership, saying that “triggering that cycle (of bloom) will require bolder action—action you have the power to take as leaders, governors, and ministers focused on Nigeria’s future. And that means that the future of Nigeria depends on all of you—and your leadership in the years to come.” I hope they will ponder over these wise words when they summon the courage to visualize a Nigeria that is not subsumed under their bitter, petty and vindictive selfish politicking. I just hope so!

     

     

  • Dapchi: Sadness and joy

    The return of the Dapchi school girls snatched by a faction of Boko Haram, has led to natural joy from their parents and loved ones.  The joy, of course, shows the reaction to tragedy is the same, no matter your faith.

    The Chibok girls, earlier kidnapped from another girls school in Chibok, Borno State, were Christians.  The Dapchi girls are Muslims, save the sole Leah (Liya) Sharibu, the brave Christian girl, among the brood, who reportedly stood up for her Christian faith, even at the risk of a continuos curtail of her freedom — or even worse.  Liya reportedly refused to renounce her faith.  Because of that, she is still being held by the Islamists.

    So, everyone could understand the sadness-turned-joy of the Dapchi parents, just as the parents of the Chibok returnees, after the negotiated return of some of the girls.

    Kudos to the government for the return of these girls.  But it must not forget the unfinished business of the remaining Chibok girls.  President Muhammadu Buhari should do everything humanly possible to bring them back from Boko Haram captivity.  That is the only way to bring closure to that unfortunate aspect of our current political history.

    Still, there is some sadness mixed with this joy of release: the agony of the parents of those five Dapchi girls, reportedly crushed in a stampede in the abduction truck, en route to the girls’ kidnapping.  Statistically, even saving nine out of 10 is nothing.  The sole doomed soul had blood flowing in his veins!

    The parents of the Dapchi 5 must be mourning and moaning: why us, and why only our five children?  Again, a great lesson: prevent these disasters, instead of rallying to minimise their impact.  Legitimate sadness there!  The Federal Government owes these parents a lot of support to navigate their pains.   It should get on that real quick!

    Still, there is another perverse sadness that simply belies all understanding, or even common sense.

    Ekiti Governor Ayo Fayose — well, the less said about that one, the better, for it’s his well documented behaviour to trivialise everything in the grand delusion that those he is dealing with are daft.

    When the Dapchi girls were kidnapped, Fayose came up with some cynical hashtag: “APC #Bring back our Dapchi girls”.  In his cynical, eternally infantile mind, that was a perfect electioneering slogan, perfectly conjured by the gods for 2019, to counter the PDP government’s failure to recover the Chibok girls, a chore President Buhari is condemned to sorting out.

    But when the Dapchi girls returned, Fayose claimed it was all a ruse!  If indeed, it was, why did he plan to make political capital out of it?  Yet, another bit of Fayose-an emptiness!  Indeed, pitied are the people whose governors behave like eternal children.

    Even in the critics’ world, there appears some suppressed sadness.  Oby Ezekwesili, a loud voice in the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) lobby, in her reaction to the Dapchi release, sounded rather low beat, even if she declared herself “happy”.  Yet, had the situation remained otherwise, she would have led her “red army” to rail and thunder at the gates of Aso Rock.

    Now, how equitable is that?  Is Boko Haram girls’ kidnap now assuming a dark politics of its own: thunder when the situation is dire; but whimper when there is some relief in the air; when you should be as happy as you were sad, when the situation was dire?

    It’s a looming Nigerian heart of darkness, apologies to Joseph Conrad, which should be decried by all.

  • Dapchi: before we celebrate

    It is heart-refreshing 104 of the abducted Dapchi School girls have been freed by suspected Boko Haram captors. Whatever efforts that led to their freedom after a harrowing 33-day captivity is worth the while.

    The government said it was made possible through back-channel efforts with the help of some friends of the country without any ransom paid. But they were not forthcoming on the fate of six girls yet to be returned by the insurgents even as five of them were reported dead as they were ferried away. One girl identified as Leah Sharibu, a Christian, is still with the terrorists for refusing to denounce her religious faith.

    It is sad five of the innocent girls died due to stampede as the terrorists made away with them. Our hearts go to the parents of the poor girls. But the star of the abduction saga is Leah Sharibu, the Christian girl who in the face of death refused to denounce her religion. One can conjecture her feelings as she watched her school mates leave the detention camp. It was a real display of uncommon faith in her religion even in the face of death. May the almighty God protect her life in the hands of that criminal gang whatever their motive.

    Buhari regime is taking credit for facilitating the release. For them, it was the fruit of the president’s directive to security agencies to deploy everything possible to secure a quick release of the girls. One official was even beating his chest for the prompt release against what he described as the tardiness with which the previous regime handled the Chibok abduction. That could as well be. The government can take all the credit for the release of the girls. It is also at liberty to seek political capital of the processes culminating to their freedom.

    Before it celebrates; it must rise to the challenges which the abduction and subsequent freeing of the girls have elevated to public domain. The way these cloudy issues are resolved, will determine whether in all fairness, the government’s image has been enhanced or dented by the Dapchi saga. Its outcome is bound to colour perception and redirect attitude on the continuing war against the Boko Haram insurgency.

    First was the controversy over the withdrawal of troops from Dapchi shortly before the abduction. Initial reports had denied there was any such withdrawal. But the army was later to admit it withdrew troops to beef up its fighting strength at the Niger- Nigerian boarder where they had come under serious attack. The issue is still hanging.

    There was also the initial report by the Yobe State government that the abducted girls had been rescued by the army. That statement was recanted the following day by the same government citing inaccurate information fed it by an unnamed military source. That knot is yet to be untied. There was also the curious doubt by Governor Geidam on the veracity of the abduction even when parents of the girls and those on ground had incontrovertible evidence of what transpired.

    Why the governor who had announced the rescuing of the abducted girls by the military turned round to doubt the possibility of the abduction is still confounding. It raises posers regarding the source of his initial information and that which led him to doubt if there was any abduction at all. There are issues to tidy up here for the discerning public to be in a proper stead to ascribe any measure of credit to the government for its role in the tangle. Geidam requires serious interrogation on what led him to the irreconcilable positions he took when the abduction took place. It is either he is an absentee governor or he knew more than he made the public to believe for some reasons. Whichever the case, he failed to give a good account of his position as number one citizen of a state under serious security emergency.

    Again, just two days before the girls’ release, Amnesty International came out with a damning report alleging military authorities and the police received multiple calls up to four hours before the Boko Haram raid but did practically nothing to avert the abduction. It gave a graphic account of the movement of the terror group, the places they stopped and the time lag that would have enabled the attack to be checkmated but all to no avail.

    But the military denied the allegations; questioning their motive accusing them of spreading falsehood to whip up sentiments, demoralize friendly nations and others collaborating with the security echelon in the fight. It challenged Amnesty International to make public the officials called and the phone numbers used to contact them. When you pair Amnesty International’s allegations with the withdrawal of troop prior to the attack, they inevitably point to a predictable direction.

    As the altercation was still trending in public space, there emerged the sudden news of the girls’ release. That appeared to have pushed the controversy to the back seat. But it struck as a weird coincidence especially given the very casual manner the girls’ release was done. Accounts from government and independent sources had it that the insurgents drove into Dapchi town in a convoy of vehicles and dropped off the girls. Villagers said they had copious interaction with the insurgents, took pictures with them with their handsets in very relaxed mood. The zoomed off after spending not less than an hour with villagers.

    Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed corroborated this when he disclosed that one condition the terrorists gave was they would drop off the girls where they picked them. That was the only condition to the negotiation and we either take it or leave it. For this, security had to be stood down to allow the release take place without endangering the lives of the girls. That appears a good answer to why the military could not confront them.

    Sadly, the circumstance of the release has thrown up more riddles than it can possibly answer. There are serious issues with the claim that there was no other condition to the negotiation except the patronizing demand by the insurgents to drop off the girls where they picked them. That seems a curious condition. They had to fuel their chain of trucks at their expense, wade through their fortress only to drop off the girls. Such act of charity is uncommon in negotiations involving such a complex, very sensitive and dangerous warfare. It casts the terrorists as negotiating from a point of weakness when they were in very strong position to dictate the terms. It requires further explanation.

    Aside ransom, it will remain largely curious that the insurgents brazenly drove out of their camp in a convoy of trucks into Dapchi with the full knowledge of the military and back without our security forces having inkling of their hiding places. Is it possible for the terrorizing contingent to operate within our shores or outside of it with such impunity without the knowledge of their hiding places by our internal security or the Multi-national Joint Task force?

    Before now, we had been told that Boko Haram no longer occupies any territory in this country. From whence did they take off and anchor at the completion of their mission? And why have their armada of trucks and military arsenal continued to escape the prying eyes of the security forces?

    The unfortunate outing casts serious slur on the war against Boko Haram. More than ever before, it has reinforced accusations that the terror group is a protuberance of political and economic agenda masquerading under religious garb. At the point we are, the war has already atrophied. With the touted friendly and patronizing disposition of the insurgents, an end to it should be a fait accompli. There is no reason for the war again if the Dapchi comedy denotes its current form.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Dapchi: Waiting for Leah

    It was a most practical and certainly welcome act of restitution. Rampaging militants, who had seized some students of the Government Girls Science and Technical College (GGSTC) in Dapchi, Yobe State, on February 19, swept back into the town last Wednesday, freeing their hostages following negotiations with the Federal Government.

    The militants, suspected to be from a faction of Boko Haram, returned to Dapchi in the same storm raider fashion they struck in February, trucking their hostages back to freedom. Reports said they came in a convoy of about nine vehicles and dropped the schoolgirls off into the custody of harried parents, having beforehand indicated they would rather not release them to security forces. Of the 110 schoolgirls seized from their hostels 30 days earlier, the militants released 104 captives along with two others said not to be of the GGSTC stock.

    It seems fairly obvious, sadly, that five of the Dapchi schoolgirls will never be returning, having died in an overcrowded truck en route to captivity on the day they were abducted. “Five of us could not make it, as they were confirmed dead on arrival at the hideout due to suffocation in the vehicle that conveyed their batch,” one of the freed schoolgirls was reported telling the press.

    The militants waltzed into Dapchi unchallenged last week because the Muhammadu Buhari administration directed security forces to hold fire as part of the hostage release deal. A security source was reported in the media saying: “Boko Haram militants drove into Dapchi, dropped off the girls in the heart of the town and went back with no shot fired at them. We were asked to leave our camp, which is the route that Boko Haram followed to drop off the girls.”

    Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed confirmed the ceasefire deal, saying the militants let go the schoolgirls with no precondition attached other than that they would deliver the girls directly to Dapchi. Even though many have voiced doubts that the liberty granted the schoolgirls by Boko Haram was for free, the minister insisted no ransom was paid. “The girls were released unconditionally, no money changed hands. They (militants) only gave us one condition: that they will return (the girls) to where they were picked. So in the early hours of (Wednesday), they did return the girls and most of them went to their parents’ homes,” he said.

    And in a subsequent interaction with journalists, the minister told them: “Once violence and confrontation were ruled out and negotiation started, there was a deliberate pause on the part of the military. In other words, it was agreed that there would be no force; there would be no confrontation. That was why it was possible for them to drop the girls. It was part of the agreement that, ‘We will release the girls, there will be no violence nor confrontation.’ And don’t forget that the lives of these children are much more important to us than any cheap victory.”

    I hold that the Buhari administration was in order giving the insurgents right of way to drop off the Dapchi schoolgirls to freedom. For all practical intents, the end should justify the means. We have the Dapchi schoolgirls – well, most of them – back from the Boko Haramists, and that is what matters. The catch, though, is that the claim by principals of this administration that Boko Haram has been defeated and that it only picks on soft targets in its death throes rings too hollow now and should no longer be touted. People who swooped on a town with some security presence and harvested schoolgirls into captivity unchecked, and thereafter appropriated free passage to return with the girls like folk heroes and fade back into the shadows do not look anywhere near being defeated.

    It is nonetheless hugely gratifying that the Dapchi girls are back. The prevailing mood among Nigerians since they were freed has been euphoric; and that is so infectiously so that some parents from Chibok community in Borno State, which yet has more than 100 of its own schoolgirls remaining in Boko Haram captivity since April 2014, stormed Dapchi last week to share in their joy.

    Only that this also happens to be an election year and partisans, predictably so, would spare no quarter wringing political juice out of every pore. And so, whereas the Buhari administration and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have basked in the achievement of retrieving the Dapchi girls from insurgents’ captivity – never mind that they ought not to have gotten there in the first place, opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under whose Goodluck Jonathan administration dawdled over the Chibok debacle has been shrill alleging sheer orchestration of the Dapchi saga for political gain.

    Indications from the militants’ stated motive do not bear out either stance, though. Multiple sources in Dapchi cited the Boko Haramists saying they acted on religious sentiments and free of external influence. One eye witness of the militants’ return to the community last Wednesday was quoted in the media saying: “The insurgents were very friendly as they told residents that they had to return the girls and reunite them with their parents, having realised that 99 percent of them are Muslims and most were fasting on the day of the attack. One of the insurgents said they thought majority of the girls were infidels, hence the attack; but they later regretted their actions, and had no option than return them without collecting a dime from any government.”

    It is arguable still that the Buhari administration takes some credit for the negotiations and enabling environment that brought back the Dapchi schoolgirls. Actually, some officials of government have somewhat advanced the argument. In her exhilaration on the day that the girls were freed, Foreign Affairs Minister of State Khadijat Bukar Abba, who herself hails from Yobe State, told journalists: “I am very excited today…We are very happy we have achieved what we had gone out to achieve, and we thank the Almighty God for His mercies.”

    Also speaking with journalists, Defence Minister Mansur Dan-Ali, who barely a week earlier predicted imminent release of the Dapchi girls, savoured the fulfillment of his prediction. “I (did say) in two weeks, two months or less, we are going to get the girls released and this has happened…This is as result of the efforts of Mr. President and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces for the support he has been giving us, and the output is showing now,” he said.

    Since most Nigerians, even those outside of government, are thrilled with the Dapchi girls’ return, no one can in good conscience begrudge the Buhari administration its relish of the incident. But the savor sucks without Leah Sharibu, the only Dapchi girl yet remaining in Boko Haram captivity.

    Leah is the only Christian among the seized Dapchi girls and, at 16 years, she is a heroine of faith, having rebuffed a demand by her captors to convert to Islam before regaining her freedom. Leah’s father, Nata Sharibu, said on radio last week that the insurgents decided not to release his daughter because she refused to convert. “All the others were released, but they would not release her because she is a Christian…I am very sad, but I am jubilating too because my daughter did not denounce Christ,” he explained.

    It was bad enough that Leah was taken into insurgents’ captivity alongside a throng of her schoolmates; it boggles the mind to contemplate how she must be feeling now that she remains alone in captivity. The Dapchi schoolgirls’ release is utterly inconclusive and any celebration premature on the part of government until Leah Sharibu is brought back.

     

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  • “Pure water” seller abducted with Dapchi girls freed

    The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said that a pure water seller who was kidnapped alongside the Dapchi schoolgirls was among those released by the insurgents.

    The minister who disclosed this on Sunday in Lagos, said a primary school boy had come to the school to sell pure water when the abduction took place.
    “Also kidnapped were two other persons, who are not students of the college.
    “They include a primary school boy who came to the school to sell pure water and another primary school girl,’’ he said.

    For further clarification, he said a total of 111 girls were abducted from the Government Girls Secondary and Technical College (GGSTC) in Dapchi on Feb. 19.

    “That means one student was not captured on the list of 110 abducted students that was compiled by the school, on the basis of which the Federal Government gave the number of abducted schoolgirls as 110.

    “So far, a total of 107 persons, comprising 105 Dapchi schoolgirls and the two non-students have been released by the insurgents.

    He said that six Dapchi schoolgirls were yet unaccounted for and all efforts will be made to secure their release. (NAN)