Two-hundred and sixty-two days after their
daughters were kidnapped from school, some of
the distraught parents of the students of
Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno
State, on Thursday criticised President Goodluck
Jonathan for not fulfilling his promise to rescue
the girls from the custody of Boko Haram.
The abduction of the 219 girls from their hostel
at night on April 14, 2014 has attracted global
outrage and the President had promised several
times that the girls would be rescued alive.
Nine of the abducted girls’ parents, during their
meeting with the BringBackOurGirls group on
Thursday in Abuja, carpeted the President for
failing to bring back the schoolgirls.
The leader of the parents, Rev. Mark Enoch,
accused the government of having a hand in the
abduction of the girls, noting that the principal of
the school in Chibok had, few hours before the
abduction, locked the girls in their hostel and
warned them not to leave.
Enoch explained that the relatives of the principal
and the school matron were able to rescue their
daughters from the sect, leaving other girls in
captivity.
“This is intentional, the hand of government is in
the kidnapping; we want the government to bring
back our girls. If they cannot do it alone, they
should seek the assistance of the United Nations
and some advanced countries, the distressed
father said.
The cleric, who appreciated the BBOG for not
giving up on the girls, noted that but for the
activities of the coalition, the issue of the girls
would have been forgotten given the remote
location of the Chibok community.
Another parent, Mrs. Samuel Abana, asked the
President to fulfil the promise he made in July,
2014, when he met with the parents at the
Presidential Villa, Abuja. The President had told
the parents that the government would secure
the release of the girls.
Abana, who broke down in tears while speaking,
recalled that the Federal Government had initially
denied the abduction before Jonathan met with
the parents and pledged to rescue their
daughters.
“I want to remind the President of his promise
when he met with us; he promised to rescue our
daughters, he said he would bring the girls back,
but six months later, there is no result. Mr.
President, will you fail to rescue them, if your
daughter is abducted? If you can’t do it alone,
invite the United Nations to come and rescue our
daughters,” she said.
Another parent, Bulama Jonah, recalled how the
school principal sent his daughter home because
she had not paid N300 for testimonial certificate,
adding that the girls had just two subjects to do
in their examinations before they were taken
away by their abductors.
“The saddest thing was that my daughter was
sent home because of N300 just a day before
she was kidnapped; I gave her the money for her
testimonial and she went back to school only for
her to be abducted,” he said.
Mrs. Martha Enoch said she was tired of
government’s failed promises, and urged it to
take whatever action was necessary to rescue
the seized girls.
“Government kept saying they would bring back
the girls, but if they can’t bring them alive, they
should bring their dead bodies,” she stated.
The BBOG lamented the failure of the President
to mention the issue of the Chibok girls in his
New Year broadcast, stressing that it showed
that the government did not care about them.
Few days after the girls were abducted, Boko
Haram claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
It released a video of the girls while the sect’s
leader, Abubakar Shekau, boasted that the young
girls, most of who were said to be Christians,
had been converted to Islamic religion and that
they would be given out in marriages at a token.
While unconfirmed reports said that some of the
girls had died of snake bite in the forest where
they were kept, a handful had escaped from the
insurgents’ captivity.
The United Nations in August had announced
rehabilitation facilities for the escaped Chibok
girls.
In a statement on the UN website, the United
Nations Population Fund had said that it was
working in collaboration with the World Health
Organisation and the United Nations Children’s
Fund to set up clinics to provide health screening
for any of the girls coming back, as well as
educating those who had escaped.
The representative of the UNFPA in Nigeria, Ms.
Rati Ndhlovu, had also been quoted as saying,
“The girls are running from home and they have
no menstruation pads and have nothing to use.
They need water. They need the basic things
that keep a woman dignified.”