After nearly two years in captivity, there is a report four of the 11 students of the Federal Government Girls Secondary School have been released after payment of an unspecified sum as ransom.
Two of the girls, according to a PRNigeria report were set free with two babies they were delivered of, a clear indication they were defiled and put in the family way.
The online newspaper suggested in the report that other captives whose ages range between 12 and 16 may also be pregnant or have babies.
Recall that there have been reports that Leah Sharibu, the only student who was left behind after over 100 students of Government Girls Science Secondary School Dapchi in Yobe State were abducted by terrorists five years ago, has two male children for one of her captors.
Sharibu was not released alongside 100 others five years ago because she allegedly refused to renounce her faith in Jesus Christ and convert to Islam.
Before Sharibu was left behind, there was the sensational kidnap of 276 students of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, nine yeats ago by Boko Haram terrorists. The abduction happened on the night of April 14, 2014 under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
57 of the girls escaped as they were being ferried away and several others have been released on alleged payment of ransom to the terrorists by the government. Government spokesmen often denied paying ransom.
To date, about 98 of the young ladies remain unaccounted for, though there have been unverified reports of deaths among them.
Parents of the girls lamented to the Amnesty International that of the 14 girls who returned, they have 24 grandchildren who fathers they do not know.
The spokesperson for the Chibok Community in Abuja, Dr Allen Manasseh, captured the pain of the Chibok community and parents in an interview with The Punch newspaper last week,
His words: “No one wants to keep such a horrible memory, but we are left with no option because over 90 of these girls are not accounted for. No one can tell their situation. No one wants to be woken up every morning by a distressed mother asking, “Is there any update on our girls”? And you are left with no answer for them than to join in lamentations. It is a very terrible situation to be in such a community and as a leader they look up to.
“The parents are angry, pained, and confused because nine years is too long a time to stay expecting a girl you sent to school, who never returned. The worst is, no one is giving them any updates. Most of them want to know, even if they are dead, to let them know to get closure and move on. Keeping hope alive for nine whole years in such a horrible situation, knowing what the nihilists are, is not a story to tell at will.
There was also the case of a UNICEF nurse, Mrs. Alice Ngadda, who was abducted late 2018. Ngadda was allegedly married off to a Boko Haram terrorist commander, though she has a husband and two children.
In the nearly eight years that President Muhammadu Buhari has been in power, there has been a rash of abductions, and conservative estimates put the number of those at 800, with more than half being girls and women.
Under his regime, invading schools became a plaything in the hands of terrorists and other criminals, though a substantial number of students were freed after payment of ransom by parents.
These include the abductions at Dapchi (Yobe State), Kankara (Katsina State), Kagara (Niger State), Jangebe (Zamfara State), Yauri (Kebbi State), and several others in Kaduna State (Baptist School; Federal School of Forestry Studies; Greenfield University; College of Education, Gidan Waya; Government Secondary School, Avon, etc).
Meanwhile, PRNigeria reports that after collecting a huge amount of money as ransom, a notorious bandit kingpin, Dogo Daji, has released four of the 11 remaining students of the Federal Government Girls’ College Yauri, Kebbi state.
PRNigeria gathered that two of the released students returned with two babies delivered while in captivity.
Dogo Daji had insisted that some conditions must be met by Kebbi State government before the remaining girls could be released.
Our sources added that the ransom had to be generated by parents and other stakeholders when Kebbi state government was reluctant to meet the bandits’ demands.
The parents had to beg Nigerians to come to their aid financially in order to rescue their children from their abductors.
In a letter addressed to all Nigerians in January 2023, which PRNigeria obtained, the group known as “Committee of Parents of 11 Abducted Students of F.G.C Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State, Nigeria,” passionately solicited financial assistance towards raising the sum of N100 million as ransom to be paid to the terrorists, in exchange for their wards.
In their letter, the Chairman and Secretary of the ‘Committee of Parents, Salim Ka’oje and Mr. Daniel Alkali respectively, said their female children (aged between 12-16 years) had been in the custody of their abductors for about 20 months now.
“…And the abductors are demanding the sum of N100 million before they release the girls,” they added.
It would be recalled that the 11 students were kidnapped when bandits invaded their school on 17th June 2021.
In November last year, PRNigeria reported that some of the girls had become teenage mothers, while about four others were pregnant.
PRNigeria cannot independently confirm if the ransom paid by the parents was up to the 100 million naira demanded by the bandits.
▪︎ Featured Photo & additional reports by PRNigeria