AFRTER 48 MONTHS OF INSURGENCY:
Chibok Market Closes…As Boko Haram’s Rescued Nigerian School Girl Found Alive Carrying a Baby
*Teenage Mom, Amina Ali Darsha Nkeki Looking Fearful
*Freed former School Girl Spotted by Vigilante Group around Sambisa Forest
* “We Rescued the Girl and Re-United her to her Family”– Sani Usman, Army spokesman
*Chibok School Teachers, Students Hopes to See other Kidnapped Teenagers Rescued
*Borno State Government Ready to Help Re-integrate Freed Teenage Mom into the Society
BY MAKINDE OYEGUN/CORRESPONDENT, MAIDUGURI
FOR the very first time, the lull community of Chibok bust alive, as Christians and Muslims in Chibok Market, embraced each other, discussed in hush-tones that one of their daughters earlier abducted among 200 girls by blood thirsty Boko Haram sect had been rescued by Nigerian soldiers. The seeming difference between the Christians and Muslims were buried in the this moment of unity. Not to miss any moment in catching a glimpse of the rescued girl, shops in Chibok Market were instantly shut, as the market closed for the day.
According to Hajiya Miriam Suleja, one of the Chibok Market women executives, she explained that the whole of their community are very happy since the good news of the freedom of Amina Ali Darsha Nkeki from the clutch of Boko Haram reached them. As such, the Christians and Muslims in Chibok community have now agreed that undivided-unity is what they need to make Chibok community great again.
Speaking to our correspondent, she said: “We are very happy. One of our daughters has been set freed from the grip of Boko Haram. Both Christians and Muslims in Borno State are united in this celebration. Now that Amina Ali Darsha Nkeki, our daughter who was 15 years old before her abduction among 200 other school girl has been found alive, we know there is hope for other girls to be found. Her life is more precious to us than every other thing in this life. Though we heard she had a baby in her hand at the time of rescue, we thank Almighty Allah for keeping her alive with her baby.
“We have closed our shops in Chibok Market and closed the market for today in honour of our soldiers who saved our daughter and the baby. We are all trooping to our rescued daughter’s home now, so we have to lock the market for today. We also thank the efforts of our community vigilante in this freedom. We are very happy.”
Confirming this freedom as authentic and positive accomplishment by Nigerian soldiers, spokesman of Nigerian Army, Sani Usman without giving deep details told newsmen that “Nigerian soldiers rescued one of the girls earlier kidnapped by Boko Haram near Damboa. I will not give further details on how we achieved this feat not to endanger the lives of other school girls in the dungeon of Boko Haram that we are trying to save alive. We are wining the battle against Boko Haram.”
Meanwhile, Amina Ali Darsha Nkeki has been shielded away from family members from talking to the press, eye witness account in Chibok stated that the rescued girl is looking fearful, as she constantly looks around her involuntarily. Sources in Amina’s family home now turned a tourist attraction said representation has been made by the Borno State Government to the family, ready to help re-integrate the rescued girl to the society, while awaiting official statement from the Government House in this regard.
Amina was reportedly quoted after been freed as saying her schoolmates were still in the Sambisa forest, Boko Haram’s biggest stronghold in the remote north.
Boko Haram captured a total of 276 girls from their school in Chibok, northeast Nigeria, in April 2014, part of a seven-year-old insurgency to set up an Islamic state in the north which has killed some 15,000 people and displaced more than 2 million. Dozens of the girls escaped in the initial melee in 2014 but more than 200 remained unaccounted for.
Amina’s freedom is an assurance that all the kidnapped girls may still be alive, but have been teenage mothers since a section of the press earlier revealed that these abducted girls were being used as sexual slaves by Boko Haram insurgents. This is a ray of hope for the administration of Nigeria’s President that his central policy of crushing Boko Haram and wielding them out of Sambisa Forest is gradually yielding result.
