By Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna
The Director of Media and Communication of the Kibaku (Chibok) Area Development Association (KADA),Dr. Allen Manasseh has said they’ve engaged former President Goodluck Jonathan, Muhammadu Buhari, and engaged Tinubu on what they need to do to end terrorism and rescue all abductees, not just the chibok girls.
Dr. Manasseh who disclosed this also said that if they had worked with what they’ve been telling them from 2014, Nigeria wouldn’t have had Dapchi, kankara, kagara, and over 10 other mass abduction from schools including even the resent one in Kaduna state.
Dr. Manasseh made the assertions in an elaborate interview with our correspondent while reacting to alleged confusion over reunion of some Chibok girls with their imposed Boko Haram abductors by Borno state government.
According to him, the recent media report was that the Governor refused to release them to their parents and kept them in their custody.
“I don’t have any records of any 19 girls. What I know and what l heard from the media about their parents which i think is normal is that, 18 girls escaped between 2021 and 2022, and four of them did not return back to the government when they were ask to return back to where they were keeping them.
“Only 14 went back and the 14 are still in government custody. I’ve not spoken with their parent whether it is with their consent or not.
“But recent report i red from the media is that the Governor refused to release them to their parents and kept them together with the so called bandits, the same terrorists that claim to be their husband”, he said.
I think a reasonable government should release them to their parents, after rehabilitation or debriefing,
The government of Borno state especially professor Zulum don’t have right to keep girls that were abducted from school, away from home for over 10 years or so now.
“So whether they want to go to school or they don’t want to go to school, that decision should be left to them and their parents, and not the government.
“So keeping them in one ever facility even if you are keeping them in Aso Villa or in Transcop, that is not where they want be. It is no different from staying in the terrorists den that they escaped. So the girls must be released to their parents.
“I’ve put my life on hold for 10 year, and i have been insulted, I have been, you know, called different names, people are even thinking as if that we are getting paid for it. Who is paying anybody for advocacy.
“So I am tired of speaking and speaking, engaging the police, all the security agencies, military, the defence chief, you know service Chief, the President.
“I have engaged Goodluck, Buhari, and have also engaged Tinubu government on what they need to do to end terrorism and rescue all the people that are abdicated, not just the Chibok girls.
“If they have been working with what we have been telling them from 2014, we wouldn’t have had Dapchi, we wouldn’t have had kankara, kagara, and over 10 other mass abduction from schools like even the resent one in Kaduna state. So is a shame that 10 years after Chibok girls we are still talking about children being taken away against their wish from schools. Its a shame for any other person that is defending bandits.
“We still have people in IDP camps, we still have those town that cannot be accessed, we still have federal road under luck and key, and then we still have people that so-called themselves military chief, police chief, politician in FG or state government that are struggling for the released terrorists that have decided to surrender after they have been caged or box from fighting within themselves, ISiS and Boko Haram, and are now rehabilitating them better than even rehabilitating your citizens?
“Getting them to access sources of business, giving them I’d card to be misbehaving, recruiting them into our security agent, is that the right step to take.
“So it is so anointing, honestly i am tired of talking about terrorism and the response of Nigeria to terrorism that we are still prosecuting on terrorism and the best you can do is granting amnesty to terrorist while making your citizens that have been displaced more poorer than even the terrorist because they refused to carry arms.
“And they’re there languishing in IDPs camps without doing anything. Go to Minnau in Cameroon, we still have more than 50,000 Nigerians still wallowing in poverty in Cameroon as we speak. We still have IDP camps scattered all over, just because Zulum is closing camps in Maiduguri doesn’t means that we don’t have camps.
“Over 300 people were abducted in Gamborogala in this March. IDPs, who is talking about them.
“Media are quiet Maiduguri, most communities are closed. We’ve federal road that are under lock and key that we cannot use. Good example is Samboa to Maiduguri road. We still cannot use the road and then your talking about rehabilitate Boko Haram.
“And now this girls just escaped on their own, not that you rescue them and came back to civilization. Take them to their families. Look for ways, If they want to leave this country, give them money let them go and look for ways they can polish their life back after taken a whole 10years out of their life, not to go and keep them in Maiduguri and said you’ve people teaching them nonsense.
“The government know everything about this thing terrorism. They know everything about B/Haram and bandits from the start. The only thing is there’s no political will and sincerity of purpose to end terrorism.
“And that’s why people are still collecting ransom, making phone calls with bandits and are saying, with increase improve in technology in this global improvement in technology, we cannot trace terrorists on our soil. That they can carry hundreds of people and go away with them at will and still have to pay ransom for it. Its a shame for anybody that call himself a leader in Nigeria”, he lamented.
In a recurring revelation, Borno State Government has disclaimed allegations that the 19 abducted Chibok girls released to them for their education, have not been reunited with Boko Haram and returned to captivity with them as speculated in some quarters.
Some top government officials who obliged information in confidence, in an interview, however revealed that some of the 14 Chibok girls came with their child and Boko Haram husbands to the Second Chance rehabilitation Centre built by the state govt for educating victims.
The government officials were reacting on allegations that 19 Chibok girls that came out of captivity, and released to Borno State government 2 years ago with promised to educate them, were reunited with their captors, their impostor husbands by Borno state.
It was also alleged that the Chibok girls’ parents have expressed surprised over the development when found out that the girls were truly reunited with the captors husbands, brought by the state government”, they stated in written.
Governor Zulum’s 2 government officials who pleaded anonymity said “There’s misinformation about the whole program in the whole contest. I don’t have details of the exact program. All I know is that the whole of the girls were enroll in the second chance skill acquisition center where they’ll acquire more knowledge and skills to sustain themselves”.
“Initially the over 100 of them rescued were supposed to be taken over by federal government for free education but with the change of government things did not go as planned so Borno state government decided that it should enroll them in school they can acquire skill.
“They’re no longer little girls because the came back with child and cannot match with the conventional secondary schools anymore.
“So they enrolled them into second chance acquisition centre built by Borno state government purposely for elderly women, for skill and literacy in skills that’ll make them meaningful in society. Actually 20 of them were enrolled. They went back to their parent in chibok recently during holiday and promised to come.
“Some of them, I could not remember their number who’s parent took to plateau state. I don’t know the particular place they’re under going personal rehabilitation or something like that. But the 14 decided to come back and continue with their skill acquisition. There’s nothing like govt marrying them out or something like that.
“Some of them came together with their husband. Government did not give then any husband. Some of them came with their husband’s from the bush. You know they were not rescued at the same time, some by military or freely”, the two state officials said.
On whether the girls goes to their family with their imposed husband from bush? An official said “i don’t know, they’re still at the skill centre learning the skills”.
The officials further explained that “They are on various programs. Some are in second chance school, some decided to go back to their parents.
“How long does it take to graduate from primary or secondary school’, an official demanded? “We’re told is craft school, not conventional school”, our reporter responded. “That one is curriculum matter”, a state official responded.
All effort to speak to the patents proved abortive, however In an elaborate interview, an active and front line citizen, popularly known and addressed by many as Coordinator “#Bring Back Our Girls”, Dr. Allen Manasseh, said he know that 18 chibok girls that escaped from captivity went back and are still government custody, but has not spoken with their parents whether is with their consent or not
Recalled that on the night of April 14, 2014, about 276 schoolgirls of Government Secondary School Chibok were kidnapped. While 57 later escaped, 105 were brought back through independent escape and military negotiations even as 112 Chibok girls remain captivities of the Boko Haram terrorist group. End.
