Parents
of the Chibok girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram members have
revealed their heartbreak and pain after receiving calls from the
missing girls' mobile phones.
It has been revealed that five telephone lines belonging to some of
the abducted Chibok schoolgirls were used to call some of the parents.
It has been gathered that the parents received threats from the
unknown callers. The unknown callers also gave conflicting information
on their location with some claiming to be speaking from Ondo or from
Cameroon.
According to The Nation, Mr. Hosea Tsambido, Chairman Kibaku Area
Development association (KADA), an Association that represents the
Chibok community in Abuja, told reporters yesterday that the chairman of
the Chibok girls’ parents, Yakubu Nkeki, gave him the information.
Tsambido who spoke ahead of tomorrow’s second anniversary of the
girls’ abduction, added that Nkeki was threatened by the respondents and
warned never to call back if he loves his life.
He said: “The speculation that a Chibok girl phoned her father
is not exactly like that. It is actually the telephone numbers of about
five girls that are being used to call people but when the parents call
back, different people answer, some will say they are in Ondo or in
Cameroon.
”All the parents that were called missed the calls,” he said.
Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima has also expressed optimism
that the 276 Chibok girls will soon be united with their families.
Shettima, spoke during a visit to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Director general Sani Sidi in Abuja.
He said: “I am an optimist, and based on information at our
disposal, the Chibok girls are still alive and will be united with their
families soon. We are hopeful that the girls will be recovered.
“Though security falls within the area of responsibility of the
federal government, the government is doing all it can not only to
rescue the girls but to care for the well-being of the generality of the
people. We have started rebuilding most of the communities, we are
determined to rebuild all.
“The military has been doing so much in the past week which led
to the influx of IDPs to our camps. Because of the successes by the
military, we have over 75,000 IDPs in Zifar, 28,000 in Bama, 38,000 in
Banki, 27,000 in Polka. Right now, there is an inflow of 2,300 people to
Gusa today, which necessitated the visit to NEMA to solicit for the
usual assistance
“As a state government, we are doing our best but NEMA has been
our partner in taking care of the IDPs for the past one to two years.
Within the Maiduguri metropolis alone apart from the IDPs in the camps
we have 1.7million people within the host communities. Even in the best
of times our people were the poorest of the poor and Boko Haram has
further compounded the problem."
Borno is free now, though there are hiccups here and there but not
like before again. I am not saying they are completely liberated. Peace
is gradually returning to the state. By the end of the year, the people
will return to their homes.
The NEMA DG assured the governor of NEMA’s assistance at all times
and promised to assist in the influx of IDPs in the state. British High
Commissioner to Nigeria Paul Arkwright, said yesterday that his country
will never abandon the Chibok girls.
Arkwright said his government will ensure that the Chibok girls and
thousands of Nigerians held hostage by Boko Haramý in the North East
are rescued.
The High Commissioner spoke when he received members of the
#BringBackOurGirls (#BBOG) advocacyý. The visit was part of their global
week of action.
He said: ”The United Kingdom, the British government has not
abandoned the Chibok girls, we have never abandoned the Chibok girls. We
are doing everything we possibly can, including in the area of
intelligence to support the Nigerian government in their efforts to find
the girls, what we are doing and will continue to do is to work with
the Nigerian government to help locate the girls and do what we can to
help release them. What I can say is that we have not forgotten the
girls, I will go back to London with the very strong message that you
have given to me that you are looking to London for assistance, this
suffering has gone on for too long, I am concious of the fact that there
are other hostages taken by Boko Haram, not just the Chibok girls, we
will see what we can do for all of them and to help across all of the
Northeast to see what we can do."
Former Minister of Education and leader of #BBOG, Oby Ezekwesilli
urged the UK governmentý to assist in identifying the exact location of
the girls.
“We want to understand the responsibility on the part of the
global community as well as our own government, the United Kingdom was
one of the countries that showed up when we first began to call global
attention to the abduction of our girls,” she said.
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