Dozens of Girls Feared killed, Video shows them Beg To Be Spared
Community Tells Govt To Stop Playing To The Gallery As FG Claims To Be On Top Of Situation
Wakil Spits Fire, As Boko Haram Vows To Continue Keeping Girls Unless…
Last week’s video release, showing a few of the abducted Chibok girls may have given parents hopes that not all the girls may have perished as earlier feared, but not before twenty three of the girls’ parents have been reported to have died out of frustration. Chairman of the Abducted Girls Parents, Yakubu Nkekki Mbalala told nationalTRAIL in an exclusive interview that, the community buried the 23rd parent; Yakubu Daniel on Friday, while twenty two others had died earlier, occasioned by the frustrations from Government’s failure to rescue the girls more than two years after they were abducted. Nkekki said the Chibok community after several attempts to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari to remind him on the need to fulfill his promises on the rescue of the girls is fast despairing, following reports that only a few of the girls may still be living. He said, “the Government should stop playing on our intelligence, because we are tired and frustrated. They continue to tell us the same lies since the girls were abducted, and nothing concrete has ever come out of their promises. Even Amina Ali which they claimed they rescued has been estranged from the community, as the government has hidden her and her mother somewhere incommunicado”. Nkekki lamented that, all the girls are being converted to Islam against their wishes, and long after they are released, the government encourages them to remain Muslims, without seeking our consent, saying, there is a deliberate conspiracy against the chibok community in particular. The community’s lamentations brings to mind similar position by members of the Bring Back Our Girls group campaigning for the release of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram Islamists who had earlier marched to meet with the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, on July 8, 2015, to pressure him to end the deadly Boko Haram insurgency and free 219 schoolgirls held by the group since April 2014. Recent reports indicate that, a number of the kidnapped Chibok girls may have been killed in ongoing military airstrikes on Boko Haram positions in Sambisa forest, where they are believed to have been holed up. Ahmad Salkida, a journalist with alleged links to Boko Haram, in a series of tweets on his Tweeter Handle @
ContactSalkida, confirmed watching “horrifying” images of some of the Chibok girls allegedly killed by the Nigerian military airstrikes, saying the video was exclusively released to him by Abubakar Shekau, the ousted leader of Islamist group. Salkida had earlier tweeted: “Jama’atu Ahlil Sunnah Li-Da’awati Wal-Jihad #BH has released a video showing the abducted #Chibokgirls and restating their demands. Only to follow up with, “I’m studying the video of the Chibok girls that was sent exclusively to me before their abductors upload it on YouTube later, @ BBOG_ Nigeria,” he tweeted. The eleven minutes video showing Chibok girls was later released, showing a Boko Haram chieftain wielding an AK 47 rifle, with his face covered, saying, “If you think you have the might and capability, come and free these girls, then we will show you what we are made of.” In the video, the sect passed a message across to the Federal Government that it should free Boko Haram members in custody in exchange for the Chibok girls, before giving the microphone to one of the girls who said: “What I can say is that our parents should take heart,” she spoke in the Kibaku language. “Talk to the Government to meet them (Boko Haram) so that we can be allowed to go home. Our parents should beg for our release. We are hungry; we are dying,” the girl, later identified as Dorcas Yakubu in the video, pleaded. Reacting to the latest video showing some of the girls, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the federal Government is in touch with those behind the video, and that ,’’We are on top of the situation. But we are being extremely careful because the situation has been compounded by the split in the leadership of Boko Haram. We are also being guided by the need to ensure the safety of the girls, he said. ‘’Since this is not the first time we have been contacted over the issue, we want to be doubly sure that those we are in touch with are who they claim to be,’’ he said, stressing that the latest development signals the beginning of the end of the nightmares, the girls, their families and indeed Nigerians have been subjected to since the abduction saga started.
By James BWALA, Deputy Editor
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