By Ndahi Marama, Maiduguri

Where are they now?

April 14, 2014 will ever remain fresh in the minds of the people of Chibok in Chibok Local Government Area of Borno State following Boko Haram’s invasion of Government Girls Secondary School in the town where over 200 school girls writing their Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (SSCE) were abducted.

Some of the abducted Chibok girls

The gunmen killed a soldier and a policeman before they abducted the students.

The gunmen, numbering over 100, stormed the council’s headquarters at about 9pm, had a field day and left at about 3am on Tuesday, April 15, 2014.

The school, located at the outskirts of Chibok bordering Sambisa Forest, with no fence, was a popular centre for WAEC and NECO examinations since it was established in the 80s, as it was the only secondary school in the local government area. It also attracted students from neighbouring council areas like Damboa, Askira Uba, Gwoza and Biu who saw it as a miracle centre.

“Apart from the abduction of the female students, the gunmen also carted away foodstuff, before setting many residential houses and shops in Chibok ablaze”, a source said.

A resident, who escaped the attack, Mr. Nuhu Amos, in a telephone chat with our correspondent, said, “The gunmen, armed with AK47 rifles, improvised explosive devices ( IED’s ) and petrol bombs, stormed Chibok on Monday evening and attacked one of the security posts, and shot two security personnel, before abducting the school girls. They also razed some houses and shops.

“Although the attackers, based on my knowledge, did not kill any resident, they only shot security operative,  before carting away foodstuff and went away with it into Sambisa Forest.

“I  also learnt that out of about 276 female students writing their SSCE, 57 were able to escape into the bush, while 219 were abducted and taken away by the attackers using a Mercedes Benz 911 truck abandoned by a driver heading to Maiduguri, the state capital.

“Prior to this incident, gunmen had attacked Chibok three times without success,  but, this time, they were able to accomplish their mission,  as they were in Chibok since 9pm and had a field day before fleeing at about 3am on Tuesday”.

Defence Headquarters (DHQ) immediately responded, saying about 80 of the students had been rescued, while Governor Kashim Shettima, same day, disclosed that only 14 students abducted by the terrorists had been rescued and reunited with their parents, pledging N50 million ransom to anybody with information on the whereabouts of the other abducted school girls.

DHQ spokesperson, Major General Chtistopher Olukolade, said that all but eight of the girls were safe, citing information provided by the school’s principal of the girls.

But the then Commissioner for Education in Borno State, Comrade Inuwa Kubo, revealed that about 30 out of the 279 had been officially rescued.

Kubo, while reacting to the military’s claim in a telephone chat with our correspondent, said, “ I have been communicating with the principal of the school since the sad incident on Tuesday. In fact, I spoke with her and she said only 30 students have been rescued.  But I am happy to inform you that the military authorities have come out publicly to say that 80 of the abducted students have been rescued, with only eight still in the custody of the abductors”.

Parents recount ordeal in Sambisa

Days after, some parents of school girls recounted their experience in Sambisa Forest, where the girls were believed to have been taken, in search of their daughters.

The traumatised parents, who spoke when Governor Shettima visited the school, also disputed the figures provided by the state government on the schoolgirls who escaped.

Narrating their experience, Mallam Amos Chiroma, who was among those who combed the forest, said, “We saw a lot of strange things in Sambisa Forest but we will not be able to disclose all for security reasons. Borno and indeed this country require prayers from all and sundry.

“While we were in the forest with over 200 volunteers who only had cutlasses, bows, arrows and sticks, we came across different make-shift camps suspected to be owned by terrorists. We, however, had to turn back when we met one man in the forest who advised us that it was in our own interest to go back because the area we were approaching was a zone dominated by terrorists.

“If soldiers had accompanied us to the forest, we were optimistic that our missing children would have been rescued, or we would be satisfied if we could just see the dead bodies of our daughters”.

Another parent, Mallam Shettima Yau Haruna, who spoke on behalf of the parents of the abducted girls, told the governor that since the incident, they had been having sleepless nights and summoned the courage to enter Sambisa Forest.

Our correspondent, who visited the Chibok school immediately after the incident, observed that the structures and vehicles there were set ablaze.

School left open upon request – Borno Government

Facts soon emerged that the Chibok school was left opened on the day the girls were abducted when most of the schools in Borno State had been shut by government following the request of the people of the town.

This came even as the  Head of WAEC, National Office, Mr. Charles Eguridu, clarified the number of students enrolled for the examinations in the school.

Eguridu said that those registered in the school for the examinations were 530, made up of 395 girls and 135 boys.

“The school had been reverted to a mixed school but the name remained Government Girls School. We were able to relocate 189 of the total number to write their exams at another village called Uba , before the ugly incident”, he said.

A government official said the decision to leave the school opened was made after the people of the town appealed to Governor Shettima not to move their students to another town.

A week after, Shettima described the abduction as his most troubling moment since he took the mantle of leadership in Borno in May, 2011.

The statement came as seven more girls escaped from captivity, bringing the total number of those found to 57, leaving 219 still missing.

The governor’s feeling was contained in his 2014 Easter message released by his spokesman, Isa Gusau.

NLC, mothers storm Govt. House on May Day

On May 1, 2014, celebrated world-wide as Workers Day (May Day), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Borno State chapter, mothers and civil organizations converged at the state Government House, Maiduguri to protest what they described as the non-challant attitude of government towards rescuing the abducted girls.

Presenting a protest letter to Shettima for onward transmission to President Goodluck Jonathan and the Senate President, Senator David Mark, the state Chairman of the NLC, Comrade Titus Ali Abana, called on the Federal Government and the military authorities to intensify efforts to rescue the school girls.

Abana, accompanied by NLC members, mothers and civil society groups, all dressed in black attires, said the FG was not doing enough to rescue the girls as, according to him, the innocent school girls had spent almost two weeks in the hands of their abductors, without knowing the condition they were subjected to by the insurgents.

The governor assured the parents and the NLC members that government was working hard to secure the girls release, saying they will come back unhurt and be re-united with their families.

Parents, community leaders resort to fasting and prayers

In July, last year, the parents of the girls resorted to prayers and fasting.

One of the parents, Mr. Usman Samaila, in a telephone call to our correspondent, said, “ We have lost confidence in government and security operatives, as all efforts to rescue our daughters seem to have no positive results, and so we have decided as parents and community leaders to take a private move by embarking on fasting and prayers to God to rescue our children and for peace to be restored in our dear nation”.

Meanwhile, Shettima said the doubt expressed in some quarters on the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls and the theory that the kidnapping was staged managed by his government was as painful as the actual abduction.

The governor said it was a sad tale that Nigeria pays more emphasis to politics than finding solution to the nation’s problems.

Responding to the address of the Chairman of the Presidential Fact Finding Committee on the Abduction of girls, Brig, Gen. Ibrahim Sabo (rtd) during a visit, Shettima said: “Borno has seen evil times. Our people have suffered. At times, when I lament this carnage in the midst of some associates, they remind me that I didn’t create Boko Haram, that in fact, I inherited it in 2011 when I was sworn-in amidst near complete breakdown of security in Maiduguri, the largest and most populated part of the state. But I normally say to them, that a leader is elected or appointed to solve problems, it doesn’t matter whether the leader created the problem or not. A leader is elected to find solution, this is governance. There is a whole difference between politics and governance. “In politics, you tell the general public and victims about a problem, you tell them

the gravity of the problem; and with emphasis, you tell them who to blame for it. But in governance, you identify a problem and work hard to solve it. Unfortunately for us in this interesting country, we all appear to lay more emphasis on politics than on governance. The Chibok incident, to me, has grossly exposed our weighty weakness as leaders in terms of assuming our shared responsibilities.”

He added: “In two or three months, the entire Western world mobilized men and resources, contributed so much funds in the search for a Malaysian airline which is believed to have crashed into the ocean. Majority in the western world suspect that the crew and passengers of that airline are most probably dead. Despite that, massive investment was and still being deployed in the search for whatever can be found as remains of those in that plane and its wreckage. Now, while that is going on, here is Nigeria, there was a report that over 200 human creatures, young Nigerian girls about completing their secondary school education, were attacked in their school at night and whisked away like slaves in ancient years.

“Some Nigerians, one of them a former Minister and one time member of the Federal Executive Council, the highest decision making body of this country, worst of all, a woman and a mother came out to cast doubt over the abduction of these schoolgirls. That woman completely disregarded the sensitivity of that issue, the pains of the agonizing parents and our pains as a government, to whom the parents of these girls cry out in desperation and unimaginable confusion and anguish.

“Every other unreasonable Nigerian that came to adopt that view only anchored the

unfortunate view. Doubt over that abduction pained me as much as the incident itself. Doubt over that abduction pained me far more than the childish theory that, as government, we staged that abduction in order to create the basis to stop the extension of emergency rule in Borno.”

The governor, who had to mop tears from his face continually, said: “In the last three years, we have witnessed the most turbulent of times as a people. I have seen very terrible incidents as a governor. I have come across innocent citizens of Borno killed in thousands, some slaughtered by fellow human beings who think they earn rewards from God by their brutality.

“I have witnessed high scale of destructions inflicted on us as a people in Borno by fellow human beings who again think they earn reward from God by their intentional and planned devastations. I have in the last 36 days, also come across a situation

where men abducted young, innocent schoolgirls, separated them from their education, from their parents, from their relations and friends and from their environment and more disturbing also, attempted to separate them from their own religion out of compulsion”.

Only last week, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, who was re-elected on the platform of the APC to represent Southern Borno in the Senate, accused the Federal Government and the Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Bade, of failure to rescue the Chibok schoolgirls.

Ndume stated this in an interview with our correspondent at his residence in Maiduguri.

He commended the Bring Back Our Girls (#BBOG) group and the media for their roles to ensure that the girls are returned safely.

Whereabouts

One year after the abductions, the world remains concerned about the girls.

And there are many questions on the lips of the campaigners for their release. Where are they now? Are they still in Sambisa Forest where the terrorists allegedly took them after their capture? Or have they been separated by their captors to the neighbouring countries of Niger, Chad and Cameroun to make it difficult to rescue them and married off to Islamists as sex slaves as claimed by Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau? Will the girls be rescued before May 29 when the Jonathan regime winds up as said by the National Security Adviser, Colonel Aliyu Dasuki Sambo (rtd). The president-elect, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), has said his administration would make efforts to locate the girls but could not guarantee they will still be alive. Everything about the rescue of the Chibok schoolgirls remains in the realm of conjecture.