Leaders of Chibok community, under the aegis of Kibaku Area Development Association, Tsambido has said the community would never accept such a claim b
Leaders of Chibok community, under the aegis of Kibaku Area Development Association, Tsambido has said the community would never accept such a claim because the government could use it as an excuse to give up on the rescue of the other girls.
He added, “The most disheartening and annoying thing is the statement credited to one of the negotiators who said some of the girls refused to come out. We don’t want to hear that, even if the girls don’t want to come out, it is not for him to advertise.
“The girls must come out, whether they like it or not; they should force them out, just as they were forced in, they should be forced out. As their mind was changed by Boko Haram, when they return to us, we will change their mind back.”
Tsambido said some politicians from Borno State were allowed to see the girls, who are currently in the custody of the Department of State Services, lamenting that Chibok leaders, resident in Abuja, were denied access to the girls.
He added, “We have still not been contacted; parents have still not been contacted. All I was told is that some people from Chibok, two district heads and the former and present chairmen of the local government area, came to Abuja and were allowed access to the girls. Some community leaders from Abuja, who went with them, were barred from entering.’’
The leader explained that he had matched the names of the freed girls with the list he had with him.
“I started comparing the list with the one that I have and I have seen a good number of the names that matched the list I have, so I believe that they are the Chibok girls,” Tsambido stated.
One of the kidnapped schoolgirls refused to be part of those to be released because she had married one of the Boko Haram fighters, according to Garba Shehu, one of the spokesmen for President Muhammadu Buhari. Shehu stated that the militants had agreed to the release of 83 of the teenagers, who were abducted from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, in April 2014.
“One said, ‘No, I have a husband. I’m happy where I am’; and then, 82 came back.”
Shehu said the government was working to verify the identities of the 82, so they could be reunited with their families as soon as possible.
“Names of the released girls have been published already but we do not want a repeat of duplications that we had when the first set of 21 girls were released. Because of similarities in names, we had two or three sets of parents coming on the assumptions that the girls mentioned were theirs. We don’t want to create that confusion,” he stated.
He added that the Federal Government would not stop any parent from immediately establishing contact with their daughters. Rather than stopping them from meeting their daughters, the presidential spokesman said government would facilitate a quick reunion.
Shehu said, “Photographs of all the girls were taken. These pictures were printed and dispatched to Chibok. These young ladies did not all come from Chibok township itself but some from various settlements scattered around the town.”
He explained that once the parents get the pictures and verify the identities of their daughters, they are free to come to Abuja to meet with their daughters. Shehu described the long distance between Abuja and Chibok as another challenge, saying the journey by road would take two days.
Punch
