killebolavirus:
Over 200 girls abducted in Chibok
in April 2014 are being held in
Gwoza town in Borno State, a
woman who was recently
released by the Boko Haram sect
has told the icirnigeria.org .
She said she was held in the
same location as the abducted
Chibok girls.
Mbutu Papka, 56, who was
kidnapped in July 2014 and held
by the insurgents for eight
months in two locations, said
confidently that the abducted
girls were being held under very
tight security in a house in
Gwoza.
Ms. Papka said nobody is allowed
near the fenced building where
the abducted girls are being held
under 24-hour security. Even the
heavily armed guards, who keep
watch over the girls round the
clock, it was learnt, are only
allowed to go into the house to
deliver food, water and other
supplies to them.
The woman was seized along
with others when Boko Haram
attacked Gwoza on July 4, 2014
and taken to Mdita, a remote
village near the notorious
Sambisa Forest, bordering Askira
Uba, Damboa and Gwoza.
The abductees, who included
many children, according to Ms.
Papka, were kept in Mdita for
five months before being
transferred to Gwoza, where they
were held for three months
before they were finally released
on March 15.
It was while in Gwoza that she
learnt that the Chibok Girls,
whose abduction has attracted global
attention, were being housed in a compound
adjacent to where she and other abducted
people were kept.
Asked how she knew the girls were there, Ms.
Papka said she never saw the Chibok girls,
but explained that people in the area pointed
at the heavily guarded flat and said the girls
were inside.
Because access to the house was restricted,
she said, the girls apparently did their own
cooking and chores by themselves.
“In the camp at Gwoza, there were clear
demarcations between where people were
kept. The Chibok girls, other captives and
Boko Haram members and their family
members all had their separate areas secured,
though the security in the area where the
girls are kept is visibly different and much
tighter,” she said.
Ms. Papka explained that the conditions
under which the captives in Gwoza were kept
were fairly tolerable and far better than the
first location, as there was water supply.
She said that after they were taken to Gwoza,
their living conditions improved remarkably
because the town has modern facilities, as
opposed to the rustic Mdita.
“When we got to Gwoza, things changed
because there were facilities there and the
place was 10 times better than Mdita. We had
a normal life in Gwoza, except the trauma of
living in captivity. Whatever we wanted to
eat, they were provided. They would bring
water, firewood, etc., and leave them
outside,” she explained.
A few other comforts were provided.
“They even provided perfume for anyone who
requested for it,” she added.
According to her, at Mdita, she met other
abducted people including women and
children, among whom were many under the
age of seven, all living in terrible conditions.
“There was a room we used to urinate in and
because of lack of water, the place stank and
maggots were everywhere. We took our baths
once daily, if we were lucky,” she said.
Because of the terrible conditions and
absence of health care facilities in the camp,
many people fell sick and some died.
“There was a Redeemed Christian Church of
God pastor who was killed during the attack
on our village, and his wife was abducted
with us. She died at Mdita due to the
condition of the place and the death of her
husband,” Ms. Papka said.
The pastor’s wife, she explained, had diabetes
and, before her abduction, had been on a
special diet which could not be provided by
the insurgents.
Ms. Papka said she and the other women
were not raped or assaulted, although she
could not speak for the Chibok girls because
nobody was allowed to see or interact with
them.
She also said that the Boko Haram men lived
with their wives and children in the Gwoza
camp, but kept away from others and cooked
their own meals.
On March 15, 2015, after three months in
Gwoza, Ms. Papka and 10 other older women
were taken from the camp, herded into a
vehicle and driven to Izge, a village, from
where she was taken to her own village on a
motorcycle because the road is bad.
The ride, however, was not free.
“I was asked to pay N8, 000 for the motorcycle
ride, which I collected from my family,” she
stated.
This website also learnt that a two-year old
boy was given to Ms. Papka when she was
released. The boy, who is reported to be sick
and has rashes on his body, has since been
reunited with his family, which is now
seeking financial assistance to take the child
to hospital.
“He was crying uncontrollably, so they (Boko
Haram) handed him over to me as we were
leaving,” she said.
Gwoza local government area of Borno State,
which is just over 100 kilometres from
Maiduguri, the state capital, is said to be one
of the council areas still wholly in the hands
of Boko Haram terrorists.
Gwoza town was first captured by the
insurgents in August last year, following a
heavy gun attack by insurgents who hoisted
the sect’s flag and declared it the
headquarters of the group’s Caliphate.
Over 12,000 persons were displaced from the
town and repeated attempts by the military to
recapture it in the past have failed largely
due to the hilly terrain, which provide hiding
places for the terrorists from which to
operate.
This website has learnt that it is not the first
time that released Boko Haram abductees
have claimed to know where the Chibok girls
are being held.
Emman Shehu, a founding member of the
Bring Back Our Girls group, told our reporter
during the week that a young girl who was
released last week and an elderly woman had
previously claimed that the Chibok girls were
being kept in Damboa and Sambisa area.
Mr. Shehu, who is also director of the
International Institute of Journalism, Abuja,
said: “Two people, a young girl and an elderly
lady have said in the past that they know
where the Chibok girls were being kept, the
girl saying that only last week.
“We have heard people say in the past that
they know where they are. We heard before
that some of them were in Damboa, but the
military has reclaimed Damboa and they did
not say the girls are there,” he said.
The whereabouts of the Chibok girls has been
a mystery since April last year when they
were kidnapped while writing exams in their
school.
Mr. Shehu, who lambasted the military for the
manner it handled the abduction of the girls,
said that since April when they were
kidnapped, the military has made no attempt
to rescue them.
If there had been any rescue mission, he
observed, the military would have been giving
regular updates about the progress being
made in that effort.
“There has never been a rescue mission by
the Nigerian military to free the Chibok girls,”
he said, adding that the federal government
and defence headquarters have not shown
seriousness or the political will to rescue the
girls.
For example, Mr. Shehu said, the
#BringBackOurGirls group learnt during the
visit of Yousafzai Malala, the Pakistani girl-
child education activist, to Nigeria, that the
57 girls who escaped from the insurgents had
not been debriefed either by the military or
any other security agency.
More than 200 young girls were abducted by
Boko Haram gunmen at the Government Girls
Secondary School, GGSS, Chibok, on April 14,
2014, the same day that suicide bombers
wreaked havoc in Nyanya, on the outskirts of
Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
It was reported that the 276 girls who were
writing their final West African School
Certificate, WASC, exams were kidnapped
when the insurgents attacked the town
pretending to be security guards and asked
the girls to come with them.
What followed, particularly the reaction from
the Nigerian government, caused a lot of
outrage that eventually changed the dynamics
in the fight against the sect.
Less than 48 hours after the abduction and
Abuja bomb blast, President Goodluck
Jonathan was pictured dancing at a rally in
Kano, and it took him almost three weeks to
publicly speak about the incident, saying
government was doing all it could to free the
girls.
It was also reported that the Nigerian military
had four hours intelligence prior to the
kidnapping, something the military later
admitted, but said its over-stretched forces
could not immediately send in
reinforcements.
The government’s attitude drew widespread
criticism and protests grew against its
response, which was viewed as tepid. Protests
were also held in major Western cities,
including Los Angeles and London.
At the same time, the popular movement for
the release of the girls, the Bring Back Our
Girls group, was formed. The movement’s
hashtag, #BringBackOurGirls, attracted more
than two million tweets within its first week.
The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex
Badeh, once said that the military had located
the girls, but ruled out a forceful rescue
mission for fear of harming the abducted
girls.
On July 23 and 24, 2014, vigils and protests to
mark 100 days of the abduction were held in
Nigeria, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Togo,
the United Kingdom, the United State, Canada,
and Portugal and following global attention
brought by the abduction, the UK, US, France,
China, Canada, Israel and the European Union
all offered support to Nigeria.
But despite all efforts by Nigeria and other
nations, the abducted girls have remained in
captivity, with no clue about their fate.
If Ms. Papka’s present condition is anything to
go by, even if the girls have not suffered any
physical abuse, the emotional and
psychological trauma inflicted by their
experience would be, indeed, enormous.
ICIR reporter learnt that Ms. Papka’s
experience appears to have left a permanent
impact on her. Her children say she is like a
stranger to them. She is easily scared by
sounds and approaching footsteps and prefers
to stay alone, not talking to anyone.
These are apparently effects of her abduction
and detention by the insurgents. Sadly, there
is no mechanism put in place either by the
state or federal government, or even civil
society organisations, to provide any kind of
counselling or medical care and assistance for
her.
It was learnt that the Borno State government
is aware of the release of the 11 women by
Boko Haram as their return home was widely
celebrated in many villages, but as at
Wednesday morning, 10 days after, no state
official has visited any of them or offered any
kind of assistance.
On Wednesday, when our reporter talked to
one of her relatives, she said the family was
planning to take her to see a psychologist.
Attempts by the icirnigeria.org to share
information about the girls’ whereabouts with
the military and get its reaction were not
successful, as the Director of Defence
Information, Major-General Chris Olukolade,
said in a telephone conversation that he was
out of town.
Although it was agreed that the information
was too sensitive to be shared on the
telephone and that a face-to-face meeting was
necessary, Mr. Olukolade, who said he was
returning to Abuja on Tuesday, has not
reverted to us at the time of publishing this
report.
This report was first published by the
International Centre for Investigative
Reporting [www.icirnigeria.org ]. We have
their permission to republish.

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