Almost a year after, on the trail of Chibok girls

In a couple of days, the 219 girls will mark exactly one year away from home even as there is apprehension from various quarters that many of them might have died of natural causes or killed by their captors. Apart from them, there are hundreds of other people, including old men and women as well […]

In a couple of days, the 219 girls will mark exactly one year away from home even as there is apprehension from various quarters that many of them might have died of natural causes or killed by their captors. Apart from them, there are hundreds of other people, including old men and women as well as children that were forcefully abducted from various communities especially in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states who remain missing.
The assumption was that most of the captives were being held in places once taken over by the Boko Haram such as Bama, Gwoza, Sambisa Forest, in various cells along Nigeria’s borders with Chad, Cameroon and Chad and other locations such as Alagarno in southern part of the state. But with renewed collaboration between Nigeria and its neighbours, the expectation is the team-up will see the rescue of hundreds of captives, including the Chibok girls.
A human rights activist, Fatima Kalo Yusuf said she was not happy that this has not been the case. “Of course, we have no doubt that almost all the towns and villages taken over by Boko Haram have been liberated, but where are our girls?” she asked. “I don’t want to be pessimistic but with the liberation of all the territories, especially Bama and Gwoza, I have doubts if the Chibok girls will be found at all.”
Most of the parents of the Chibok girls Weekly Trust spoke to did not hide their disappointment over the nonchalant attitude of the federal government on the issue. One of them, Ayuba Aisami, said the situation has been used for political gains. “If I tell you I have hope of seeing my daughter again, I’m lying,” he said. “We have been betrayed for long because right from the onset, there was no political will to rescue our daughters. We know that they were taken to Sambisa Forest, which is not on the moon but right here in Borno State.”
Another parent, James Mbalala said he was still hopeful of seeing his daughter. “The good lord will not allow them to disappear without a trace but there is no way we can dismiss the fact even if they are found at the end of the day, their lives will never be the same,” he said.
Esther Sam, who said her daughter whom she fondly called ‘Baby’ was among the kidnapped, said: “I wish she was dead and her corpse found so that we would give her a decent burial and then keep praying for the repose of her soul. There is nothing more disturbing than missing a child, to strange fellows,” she said.
Barrister Hameed Yusuf, a legal practitioner, said the best thing the Nigerian authorities and foreign partners should do is to look beyond searching for the Chibok girls alive. “The abduction drew international attention because of the victims’ age and their status as schoolgirls but sadly, there was no commensurate effort at rescuing them.” for a very long time.
Yusuf suggested that experts be deployed to exhume corpses of people killed and buried in mass graves in places like Bama and Gwoza, with a post-mortem carried out to ascertain their identities.
Earlier in March, when Nigerian troops launched a major offensive against the insurgents in Bama, residents and vigilantes who arrived Maiduguri from the ravaged town said scores of  Boko Haram fighters have allegedly  “slaughtered their wives” ahead of the arrival of Nigerian troops. Some of the escapees said the insurgents killed their “wives” so that nobody will re-marry them.
Modu Gana, a 49-year-old driver who escaped from Bama said he saw more than 50 female corpses on his way to Maiduguri.
It was gathered that while many of the insurgents, who allegedly slaughtered their wives stayed in Bama and lost their lives during the fight with Nigerian troops, several others reportedly fled southwards to Gwoza, where their leader, Abubakar Shekau declared as headquarters of his ‘caliphate’.
A top security source in Maiduguri, who pleaded anonymity, said some of the Chibok girls were those that were relocated to Gwoza but said he was unsure of their condition afterwards.
All these give weight to the belief of an official of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Mr. Raad Zeid al Hussein, who said the schoolgirls abducted may have been killed. He said the girls may have been part of the women who were reportedly murdered by the insurgents before they fled Bama and other towns just before troops recovered the territories. Scores of abducted women, forcibly married by Boko Haram fighters, were slaughtered last month as the military advanced.
The senior UNHCR official said reports he is privy to showed that the recent recovery of territories in North-Eastern Nigeria has brought to light macabre scenes of mass graves and obvious signs of killings by Boko Haram. “These reports include the murder of the wives of combatants, women and girls actually held in slavery,” he said.
The report by UNHRC may explain the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the Chibok girls, despite the recapture of Gwoza, as well as the disappearance of the sect’s leader Abubakar Shekau.
A military source also told Weekly Trust: “Remember the girls were said to have been forcibly converted to Islam and married off, so they may have been part of those women butchered in Bama and other parts which were under their captivity.”
Mairo Adamu, 38, who escaped from Gwoza in March, said she was held hostage for many months. She also said a few weeks to her escape, some girls, believed to be among the Chibok girls were relocated to Gwoza from Sambisa Forest. “We stayed in the same compound with them for some time before I escaped,” she said, adding that at the time of her escape, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau was still there, having preached to them severally. Few days after she escaped, the Nigerian army announced the final recapture of Gwoza, but there was no news about the Chibok girls, casting more doubt on their well-being.
In April, the coordinator of National Information Centre (NIC), Mike Omeri, said the Federal Government still hopes the girls will be found. “The search continues and that is why even with capture of Bama and the rest, the military remains unrelenting. We shouldn’t give in to speculation. The one-year anniversary is next week and we hope to give a comprehensive report on what we know so far and how far the search has gone. So, the assurance I will give you is that everywhere is being combed and whatever element we’ve found will be revealed to appropriate authorities and nobody is going to keep anything secret,” he said.
While the 57 girls that escaped long ago have been taken to various schools by the Borno State government, it is now left to be seen whether the Federal Government will give Nigerians a big surprise on April 14. The nation, and the world, is watching.