THE Borno State government, on Wednesday, granted scholarship and relocated 36 schoolgirls, who escaped abduction in Government Secondary School, Chibok, in Borno State, when Boko Haram insurgents attacked the school and abducted over 200 girls on April 14.

The 36 schoolgirls, who have been admitted into international schools in Abuja, Kaduna and Plateau states, were part of 57 female students, who either escaped abduction or ran from captivity after the attack. Fifty one of the girls were meant for admission after six secured a scholarship to study at an international school in Yola, Adamawa State.

The state government is spending a minimum of N1.4 million annual fees on each of the schoolgirls in their new schools, besides other costs for welfare. Governor Kashim Shettima pleaded not to disclose the names of the schools, in order to shield them from public distraction and to safeguard the security of the girls and the new schools.

The governor spoke at a brief farewell held for the girls at the Government House in Maiduguri, on Wednesday.

Governor Shettima said he opted to spread the girls in different schools, so as not to make unnecessary visits that would continue to make them subject of public focus given the global attention on them.

Shettima said the decision to relocate the schoolgirls was reached after psychosocial experts, psychologists, medical doctors, interfaith religious experts, women from civil society organisations and other trauma managers, who conducted trauma management sessions for the schoolgirls at the Government House in Maiduguri some months back and certified the girls set for continued education.

The governor said while it was a hard decision to send the 36 girls back to school when their colleagues were still in captivity, the government had not given up on the girls still held, just as he said no sane parent would rule out a child in captivity.

Shettima called on the schoolgirls to be of good behaviour, obey the rules of their new schools, put their bitter experience behind them and focus on their studies so as to achieve their dreams in life.

The governor announced that any of the schoolgirls that obtains a minimum of five credits will be awarded automatic scholarship throughout her university education.

Governor Shettima appealed to members of the media not to bring to the public the new schools the girls would be relocated to, even if the media get to find out through investigations.

Borno State chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Reverend Titus Pona, who is an elder in Chibok community, was full of praises to Governor Shettima for fulfilling his pledge of relocating the freed schoolgirls to international schools.

http://www.tribune.com.ng/news/top-stories/item/16957-borno-sends-36-chibok-girls-to-international-schools