CHIBOK (COMPLETED)

CHAPTER NINE

THE NEWS...

A/N: Happy holiday, everyone! All the peace in the world!

News report, NE news, 1 May, 2014.

VIGILANTE FOUND A MISSING CHIBOK GIRL

One of the missing school girls who identified herself as Aminat Salihu had been found in company of a twenty three year old man, named Kabir—an escape from an attacked village near Maisamari. They were found by a group of vigilante comprising of a few military officer and some volunteers around the zone in search of the missing school girls.

The girl, who was all tears, narrated how she escaped from the truck that carried them through the dense jungle, and how he met Mallam Kabir and his family who took good care of her during a bout of malaria fever. She was nearly killed in the raid that left no survival except Kabir who promptly rescued her and led her through the hills till they were found in the dead of night by the vigilantes.

She asserted that the kidnappers were the Boko Haram insurgence and that many of her friends were carried away, "Lucia was shot!" she cried, "I saw her, she was bleeding!"

The girl had been returned to Chibok, where her family expressed gratitude to the rescue group and hope that the remaining girls will be returned to their families in no time at all.

It must be recalled that more than two hundred girls had been abducted in Chibok, Borno state, and that this marks the 17th day since the abduction...

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News excerpt from NNC enterprise, 6 May, 2014.

MISSING NIGERIAN SCHOOL GIRLS: BOKO HARAM CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY

In a 6 minutes video clip, the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, has claimed responsibility for the abduction of 276 female students from the government secondary school Chibok during the raid in the town on the 14th of April in North-eastern Nigeria. The girls aged between 16 and 18 had been missing since then without any promising lead.

The leader of the Group, Abdulkadri Salam, who stood by an armoured personnel carrier, flanked about by two masked militant wielding AK47s on either side of him, declared, "I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah," in a video that began with fighters raising rifles and shooting sporadically in the air as they chanted, "Allah'akbar!"

In a statement interspersed with derisive chuckling, Salam asserted that, "Allah had instructed me to sell them, I will execute his command. Slavery is allowed in my religion and my creed permits me to capture people and make them slaves." He also claimed that the girls were not supposed to be in school and that they were supposed to be married.

"The girls that refused to accept our religion have been gathered in their numbers, and we treat them well the way the prophet treated the infidels he seized." He said, acknowledging that some of the girls abducted were not Muslims.

The pressure is palpable in Nigeria, as the sudden raid of the town and the kidnapping of the girls had spiked more public unrest. Angered citizens had taken to the streets both in Lagos and Abuja, protesting for the prompt recovery of the abducted school girls, and the #bringbackourgirls harsh tag is making waves on the social media also sponsored by the wife of the US president alongside notable figures and celebrities from many part of the world.

This has been very embarrassing for the federal government and threatens to eclipse its first hosting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in two days time...

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News clip from Nigeria today, 12 May 2014.

RELEASE OUR MEN AND WE WILL GIVE YOU BACK YOUR GIRLS—ABDULKADRI SALAM

Boko Haram leader Abdulkadri Salam has yet again released another video about the abducted school girls from Chibok, northern Nigeria. He demanded for the freedom of his men in Nigerian prisons in exchange for the girls, reiterating that the girls would remain in his custody and abide by his rules till his demands are met.

The minister for Defence and Interior, General Isaac Uche Rtd. promptly rejected the proposal which he termed as 'absurd' for militant group to try and set conditions.

It must be recalled that in a prior Video, Salam claimed that he was willing to sell the girls according to the 'Islamic' rule of war. In this video, about 130 of the over 200 abducted girls were displayed each clad in a hijab and a long Islamic chador. Salam claimed that the girls have converted to Islam. Three of the girls were shown speaking in the 27-minute video obtained by a French news agency, and they all claimed to have been converted.

"These girls have been liberated from the shackles of their previous faith... the same girls you are all occupied with." Salam stated.

Andy Tanka, an uncle to two of the girls expressed relief at the assurance that the girls were still alive, and fright about what the girls must have been through to have chosen to comply with their demand. He pleaded with the federal government to fast-track the release of these school girls.

Intelligence suggested that the girls may have been split into smaller groups to help avoid easy detection. Local officials are currently making copies of the video and sending them to parents of the girls for identification.

Boko Haram, which means "Western education is forbidden," had been living up to its names as functionality have been disrupted in some north-eastern Nigerian schools. Thousands of people have been displaced in these regions and they currently take sanctuary in refugee camps. More death and destruction of properties are been reported daily, as the insurgence group...

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News item from The Sentinel news paper, May 25, 2014:

DEAL TO SECURE THE RELEASE OF ABDUCTED CHIBOK GIRLS FALLS THROUGH

A journalist-brokered deal to effect the release of the abducted school girls from Chibok town, Bornu state, in exchange for 100 arrested Boko Haram prisoners held in Nigerian jail had been scrapped off at late stage on May 24, 2014. This decision was made after Presidential extensive consultation with the U.S., French, British and Israeli foreign ministers in Paris. The unanimous consensus was that no deal of any kind should be struck with insurgence, and that solution involving military power was required.

In a media conference, the President stated that the Nigerian forces are doing their best to secure the release of the girls and that their rescue will be effected as soon as proper intelligence of their location and it's terrain is established. He also affirmed that the federal government view security breaches such as these with utmost concern, and that no expense is spared to effect the release of the girls.

In response to an alleged recalcitrance of the Nigerian armed force to adopt foreign aid, President Ibrahim Balogun rebuffed such claim, stating that Nigeria is currently working with aforementioned countries not just to for the release of the abducted girls but to ensure that the problem of insurgence is brought to an end and it's perpetrators brought to justice.

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News item from Sunrise weekly enterprise, 27 May, 2014.

ABDUCTEES LOCATED IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF BORNO

The Nigerian Chief of defence staff, on the 26th of May announced the sighting of some captives in a camp west of Borno. Though he touched down on specifics, Major Craig Akor expressed doubt over possible rescue by force without risking collateral damage.

An inside sources told our journalist that there is no proof that any of the women and girls in captivity hailed from Chibok, though he assured us that no effort is spared to recover the captives, he was of the opinion that it would be harder...

This should bring to mind a report by our most outstanding editor Ambrose Jack, deflecting from his initial stand that no girl was missing from the town of Chibok, he was sceptical though that forceful rescue would yield the best results.