Punch New is reporting that chilling revelations have emerged to
shed some light on the agonising experience of the missing Chibok girls, based
on the account of one of the escapees.
Three of the girls have so far escaped from the terrorist group,
Boko Haram, who abducted over 200 girls from a government secondary school in
Chibok, Borno State on the night of April 14, 2014.
A clergy and expert on counter-terrorism, Oladimeji Thompson, of
The Omoluabi Network, who has been working with other groups to assist victims
of the abduction overcome their pains, gave a chilling narration based on an
account of one of the escapees.
He said, “One of the girls I interviewed was being raped 15
times by 15 men every day.” He said the girl was traumatised and confused.
“It’s obvious this girl needs to be managed. She looked
confused. She found it hard to talk to me but after much prodding, she
confessed to me that she was raped 15 times by 15 men throughout the time she
was with the Islamic insurgents before she could escape from their den.
“A girl who has been raped by 15 men every day, you say you
negotiate and gave her back and release a terrorist who will go out and kill
more. What negotiators do is to say that they must not tell their stories, they
blanket all the information. In a situation like this, it is the Boko Haram
that wins more.”
Asked if the girl was not pregnant after her ordeal in the hands
of the insurgents, the pastor, probably in an attempt
to protect the schoolgirl, declined further comments asking our correspondent
to move to other issues.
Many of the mothers confirmed to our correspondent that against
all trumped up figures in the media, only three girls have since managed to
escape from Boko Haram’s den.
The Omoluabi Network is working with other groups such as the
Unlikely Heroes, a United States based trauma management specialists and the
Gabasawa Women Initiative, a coalition of women across Northern Nigeria led by
Kucheli Balami, to provide psychological and emotional support for the escaped
girls and their grieving parents.
He called on government not to negotiate with the terrorist
group but explore every other option in rescuing the missing girls.
“The people who are talking about dialogue in the first place
don’t understand that this thing is a merciless, unrelenting, non-negotiating
monster. Those who have studied it globally and locally know that anybody who
says negotiate is likely a mole that really belongs to the Boko Haram,
pretending not to be part of them.
“If you look at the United States today, the reason it is a
prosperous nation is because it refused to negotiate with the colonial powers
that threatened it. Nigeria negotiated, look at where we are today. America
stood by principle, look at where it is today. So, we are at a crossroads right
now. If you claim to negotiate and make Boko Haram stronger, you have betrayed
all the blood of thousands who have been slaughtered by these terrorists. If
you negotiate, you are only prolonging the evil day, helping people who will
eventually reach your own children.
Meanwhile, one of the grieving mothers, Esther Yakubu, has been
in real pains since her daughter, Dorcas, was forcefully taken away together
with over 200 others by the insurgents. Since then, Yakubu’s world has not
remained the same. Life, she says, has lost its meaning.
As she settled into the chair in the tiny room, adjusting
herself slowly before managing to look into your eyes, you could tell the
severity of her pains. Heartbroken, weak and hardly able to speak, Yakubu is in
real pains. Since “My daughter had never spent a day without me except when she
was in school,” she told our correspondent in Lagos in a rare encounter in the
course of the week.
“Anytime I remember her and what she could be passing through, I
really can’t express how I feel. She is not an ordinary child; I carried her in
my womb for 10 months before giving birth to her. I took good care of her
because her father is an orphan. I assist him in taking care of our children
because we believe they have bright futures.
“My daughter says she wants to be a teacher, her little sibling
says she wants to be a doctor. But now, I don’t know what will happen to all
that dream. Before she left home for school, she said to me, “mama, I am going
to school, I will be writing my final paper, please pray for me to be
successful and become something in life. That was the last conversation we
had.”
Tomorrow, June 8, Dorcas would have been 16. There were plans to
make it a memorable one especially as it would have been her first birthday
after secondary school life. But sadly, the latest development means there
would be no celebration in the home of the Yakubus – at least for now. Apart
from taking away their first and most promising child, the terrorists also took
the family’s peace and joy along.
“It’s been a miserable period for the family. Her younger
siblings always ask me where their sister is. The small one who is four years
old says to the other that the soldiers took Dorcas away, that they took her to
Maiduguri. The elder one would say no, that it is Boko Haram that took her away
and not the soldiers.
“For the first two weeks, the little ones were not even eating.
If we prayed and wanted to eat, I just burst into tears and so the others would
start crying too. That’s how we would all abandon the food.
“Since this thing happened, my husband has never stayed in the
house for even 30 minutes during the day time because if he sees me crying, he
will also break down in tears. So, most times, he comes in to take his bath and
goes out again. He has been thinking every day,” she said.
Recalling events leading to her daughter’s unexpected
disappearance on that fateful day, the visibly troubled Yakubu told Saturday
PUNCH that the girls
were tricked by the insurgents and that there was a strange mood in Chibok shortly
before the incident.
“We were confused at first because the girls used to shout
whenever there was danger. But on that day, there was total silence. We never
knew those people had arrested them, telling them they came to take them to a
safe place because Chibok was not good for them. The girls never knew they were
Boko Haram. There was no shouting; there was no noise, so we all thought it was
a joke.
“By the time I got to the school, I only saw one girl in the
hostel. There was nobody else. I thought children are spared during attacks,
but at Chibok, they packed both elderly and little girls away.
“On the day that thing happened, there was nobody to help. The
soldiers tried, but they were not many. There were only 15 of them guarding
Chibok before that incident happened. We are too many for 15 soldiers to
protect,” the mother of five said.
Though, the number of security personnel keeping watch over
Chibok has since increased following Boko Haram’s latest onslaught on the
community, for many of its residents, fear is still the order of the day. It
will take a long time before the town dusts off the shock.
“Life has been miserable in Chibok since that period because we
have been living in fear. Anytime children are playing and they hit drum or
some other objects that produces a loud sound, we all run in different
directions. We would be afraid, thinking they had come back again.
“I am afraid for the safety of my other children still in Chibok
with their father but we have no choice. Where will we go to? My husband is not
working for now, so we can’t talk about going to another place or state to
start a new life. We have no choice at this time,” Yakubu lamented.
Yana Galang, 48, is another grieving mother. Her daughter,
Rufkatu, the fifth of eight children, is among the around 200 girls still in
Boko Haram’s captivity. She was 17 yesterday June 6 – one of several Chibok
girls who have either marked or would be celebrating their birthdays in
captivity. The situation continues to keep the family in distress.
“I am really worried about her wellbeing because she was not
feeling well,” Galang said.
“Six months ago, she had a surgery to remove appendix and so had
been on drugs. She was still on drugs when they were kidnapped.
“She was a very supportive child. She wanted to go to the
university to become great in life. These were the things she always talked
about. I am really worried because I don’t know what might happen to her in
that forest.”
Like many Chibok households inflicted with the same wound, it
has not been easy for the Galangs moving on with life without their precious
daughter. For them, the entire episode is a big nightmare they are hoping to
wake up from.
“I still find it hard to believe that my daughter is missing. I
have not been able to sleep or eat well because it is very terrible for
somebody who is as sick as she is to be taken away like that.
“She came home to visit her father who had come all the way from
Maiduguri after three months. Her father has another wife in Maiduguri so he
comes to visit and spend time with us in Chibok once in a while. That was the
last time I saw her. It was immediately she got back to the school that this
incident happened.
“We are believing God to bring all the girls back alive. She was
a very gentle girl. She has a young sister named Esther who has not stopped
crying since she was taken away. I keep assuring her that one day by God’s
grace, Rufkatu would come back alive,” she said.
A handful of other mothers who interacted with our correspondent
during the chance meeting in Lagos during the week, also expressed concern over
the safety and health conditions of their daughters. Many of them are worried
that if rescue efforts drag on, the girls could be afflicted with all manner of
sicknesses or even lose their lives in the process.
In the wake of the girls’ abduction, there has been blame
trading by the Borno State government and the West African Examination Council
over whose laxity led to the sad development. While WAEC had claimed it warned
the state government against staging the exam in the town, the administration
had strongly debunked that allegation. But some of the aggrieved women revealed
they were forced into allowing their daughters live in the hostel during the
examination.
“We preferred our daughters going to school, write their papers
and come back home but the people in charge refused, claiming the girls would
be roaming about, that some of them don’t have anywhere to stay in Chibok so they
should all stay in school,” one of the women who identified herself as
Beatrice, told Saturday PUNCH. Two of her
daughters were among those taken away by the extremists.
“We pleaded that the ones from the community should come home
but unfortunately, nobody listened. The day the arts students concluded their
papers, there were five days interval in between and so we asked for the girls
to return home during that period but they refused.
“Some of the students disobeyed and went through the fence and
that was their saving grace. That was how some of them escaped the kidnapping.
It was those who obeyed the instruction of the school that are now the victims
of this abduction.
“Nobody sought our opinion before deciding that the girls stayed
in the hostel. Most schools in Borno have been closed because of Boko Haram,
how silly would we be to allow our children into such danger? We were never
aware of that arrangement.”
Indeed, the last seven weeks have brought plenty of sleepless
nights and agony for mothers, fathers, siblings and relatives of the missing
girls. The incident has sparked a global outrage with millions around the world
demanding for their immediate release. The Nigerian government and military
overwhelmed by the enormity of the operation, had sought help from its African
neighbours and the West in wrestling the girls away from the grip of the
insurgents. That move hasn’t brought the expected results as many of the girls,
apart from those reported to have escaped at different times, remain in their captors’
den – away from the glare of the world.
Mary Paul Lalai, one of the mothers of the abducted girls, died
on hearing the news of her daughter’s kidnap. Aimu Fonan, a member representing
Chibok constituency in the Borno State House of Assembly, broke the news to
journalists few days after the sad event. According to analysts, many mothers
like Yakubu and Galang risk similar fate if urgent measures are not taken to
ease their pain.
No comments:
Post a Comment