{"id":24316,"date":"2020-02-05T10:56:20","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T09:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=24316"},"modified":"2020-02-05T10:56:20","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T09:56:20","slug":"six-years-after-chibok-girls-sighted-at-sambisa-forest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=24316","title":{"rendered":"Six years after: Chibok girls \u2018sighted\u2019 at Sambisa forest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost six years after, a sizeable number of the famous Chibok schoolgirls abducted from a school in Borno State have been sighted at the Sambisa forest, Daily Trust has gathered.
\nAbout 276 girls were forcefully taken away from their dormitories at Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, in Borno State, by Boko Haram fighters loyal to Abubakar Shekau in April 2014.
\nA girl, who was abducted 11 months ago but regained her freedom on Sunday, February 2, 2020, told one of our correspondents that she saw some of the Chibok girls in Sambisa forest recently.
\nToday marks the 2,125th day of the Chibok girls in captivity, and their sixth year away from home will be coming up two months from now \u2013 precisely on April 14.
\nThe girls were some of the highly-priced captives held by the Shekau faction over the years.
\nOn the night of the abduction, 57 girls managed to jump from the trucks in which they were being transported while the remaining 219 were driven into the Sambisa forest.
\nSome of them have been recovered through negotiations; few died due to various reasons including ill health, about nine were killed by a bomb that shelled where they were kept while over 100 are reportedly still in the hands of their abductors.
\nOver the years, the girls had been moved to different locations including the Mandara Mountains and Gwoza hills bordering neighbouring Cameroon in Borno and Adamawa states.
\nOf recent, stories of the missing girls rarely hit the headlines except during the anniversary of their abduction.
\nFresh insight on Chibok schoolgirls An insight into the whereabouts of the Chibok girls came to the fore yesterday.
\n\u201cI saw some of the girls,\u201d said Stella Ibrahim, 18 years old, who was abducted on March 13, 2019, and regained her freedom on Sunday.
\n\u201cI met some of the Chibok girls at the Sambisa forest,\u201d she said during an interview in Maiduguri.
\nOne of those who negotiated the release of Stella said some of the Chibok girls were ready to go back home and that Shekau was also ready for fresh negotiations to actualize their release.
\nBut the source did not give details of the conditions forwarded by Shekau, the leader of the factional extremist group.
\n\u201cI would need clearance from both ends to speak on this sensitive matter so as not to jeopardize the whole process,\u201d the source said.
\n\u201cWhat I can assure you is that the Shekau faction is ready for negotiations and willing to allow some of the girls to get reunited with their families.
\n\u201cThere is still hope for the release of those girls willing to come back if the government takes advantage of the opportunity and rescues them now,\u201d the source said.
\nNot all Chibok girls\u00a0want to return<\/strong>
\nAccording to the source, \u201cWe are in talks with them (Boko Haram) over the Chibok girls; I know many of them are still alive and healthy and some of them are willing to come back.
\n\u201cNow they have opened doors for negotiations; so this is a unique opportunity for the federal government to secure the release of those girls that are willing to come back home,\u201d the source said.
\nThe source, however, noted: \u201cUnfortunately, some of the girls might not be coming back, especially those that have been married off to the high ranking commanders.
\n\u201cBut of course there are some who are not married or those whose husbands have been killed in the battlefront and refused to be re-married \u2013 they are the ones that are willing to come back.
\n\u201cThose still married to the commanders were not given any option; meaning they will not come back,\u201d the source said.
\nParents in Chibok excited over \u201cproof of life\u201d<\/strong>
\nSome parents of the missing Chibok girls have expressed delight that their daughters are still alive.
\nSpeaking on phone, one of them, Mr Joshua Bulum, said the news that some of the girls are still alive is a glad tiding. \u201cGod has answered my prayers,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cI never gave off that my daughter Ruth Wadi will one day return. Her mother has been praying, she has been crying all these years and we all can\u2019t wait to receive our daughter.
\nWe pray the federal government will use the window available to secure the release of all the Chibok girls,\u201d he said.
\nAyuba Alamson, whose sister Hadiza Kwagi was one of the 57 girls that escaped on the night of the abduction in Chibok, said they were optimistic many of the girls will return.
\n\u201cWe know some of them have died, this is certain but the Chibok community has been praying all these years. We want our daughters back. We are not bothered whether they have children or whatever, we want them back,\u201d he said.
\nMama Rebecca whose daughter, Sarah Samuel, is also missing, said, \u201cWe are helpless. It is not easy. Life has not been fair to us since our daughters were abducted. Life without them is difficult but the grace of God kept us going,\u201d she said.
\nMohammed Yahaya whose daughter Ya\u2019na Pogu is also in the hands of the Boko Haram, said, \u201cWe are waiting for our daughters to come back. What is important to us is to see them; we are suffering as a result of their absence. I am appealing to the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to make all effort to secure the release of our daughters,\u201d he said.
\nWhat the FG says on Chibok girls<\/strong>
\nWhen contacted on phone yesterday, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said he needed to get the update on the case of the remaining Chibok girls from the security.
\n\u201cThe anniversary is in April. Why are you asking me in February? I don\u2019t see what has brought it up now.
\n\u201cSo, I have to find out from the security. I have to find out the update.\u201d
\nFlashback on the Chibok girls\u2019 imbroglio<\/strong>
\nShekau had in a video on May 5, 2014 claimed responsibility for the abduction of the Chibok girls and vowed to \u201csell the girls as slave brides.\u201d
\nAnd after seven days of claiming the abduction which baffled the whole world, a video was released which showed 100 of the missing girls clad in Islamic attires.
\nA day to the second anniversary of the abduction, the CNN (the US news-based pay television channel) reported that the Boko Haram had sent a \u201cproof of life\u201d video which showed 15 of the girls.
\nOn May 18, 2016, one of the schoolgirls was found with a four-month-old baby and a man she said was her husband.
\nOn October 13, 2016, the federal government announced that it had secured the release of 21 of the girls through negotiations brokered by a foreign government and; in May 2017, 82 more girls were released in a swap between the terrorist group and the Nigerian government.
\nLife with Boko Haram in Sambisa \u2013 Stella<\/strong>
\nStella, who was 16 at the time of her abduction and a student of Government Girls Secondary School, Askira-Uba, in the southern part of Borno State, spoke about her 11 months in the wilderness.
\nHer freedom followed a mediation process by two NGOs \u2013 Initiative for Peace Building Movement and Kalthum Foundation for Peace \u2013 with the knowledge of security agencies.
\nAsked if she saw the Chibok girls, Stella said, \u201cYes, we lived in the same \u2018town\u2019 with the Chibok girls.\u201d
\nAsked how many of them she saw, she said, \u201cWe lived in the same town with two of them but there are those who are working in a hospital being managed by the Boko Haram. Many of the Chibok girls are working there.
\n\u201cI also saw some six girls who were abducted from Dikwa. They said they will not come back to Nigeria. They said they preferred to remain there (Sambisa forest),\u201d she said.
\nAsked to recount her ordeal, Stella said, \u201cWe were taken to Sambisa after our abduction. They (Boko Haram) asked if we are willing to join their religion but I said no, I don\u2019t want to be here, I don\u2019t want to practice your religion.
\n\u201cIf you can, I want you to send us back to our parents in Nigeria. They took us somewhere where we met two men and much later, they recorded us using their video cameras and then sent us back to Nigeria,\u201d she said.
\nOn how she survived for the last 11 months, Stella said, \u201cIt was tough. We were always indoors; the room they kept us was leaking during the rainy season. They didn\u2019t harm us; they only married off those who accepted their religion,\u201d she said.
\nBy Daily Trust<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost six years after, a sizeable number of the famous Chibok schoolgirls abducted from a school in Borno State have been sighted at the Sambisa forest, Daily Trust has gathered. About 276 girls were forcefully taken away from their dormitories at Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, in Borno State, by Boko Haram fighters loyal to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5777,7],"tags":[263,944],"class_list":["post-24316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-features","category-news","tag-boko-haram","tag-chibok-girls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}