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| Women protest in support of the girls abducted from Chibok. © AFP Photo/Pius Utomi Ekpeipius Utomi Ekpei |
•Parents of
abducted students to identify suspected suicide bomber •Self-confessed Chibok girl flown to Yaounde
The Federal Government is
sending to Cameroon immediately a delegation comprising parents of some of the
girls abducted in Chibok, Borno State. They are to go and identify the self-professed
Chibok girl suicide bomber arrested in the northern part of that country on
Friday.
The
Nation report continues:
The
15 year old girl and her female accomplice were apprehended by local
self-defence forces in the village of Limani, in an area of northern Cameroon
that has been the target of frequent suicide bombings in recent months moment
before they could blow themselves up.
The
two carried explosive devices on their bodies.
They
are now being interrogated by Cameroon’s security agents who said they would
contact their Nigerian counterparts with a view to ascertaining the ‘Chibok
girl’s’ claim.
Senior
Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Malam Garba Shehu,
said that Women Affairs Minister Aisha Alhassan and the Nigerian High
Commissioner in Cameroon have already swung into action and are receiving a lot
of cooperation from the Cameroonian authorities on the issue.
Shehu
confirmed that one of the two girls indeed claimed to be among the abducted
girls although there were doubts last night about the claim following fresh
information from Cameroon that the two girls were aged about ten years.
“One
of the two is also believed to be heavily drugged and therefore not in full
control of her senses,” Shehu added.
The
Nigerian High Commissioner in Cameroon, Ambassador Hadiza Zakari Mustapha is
expected to seek permission to meet with the suspects.
The
Murtala Muhammed Foundation has offered to sponsor two parents from Chibok who
have been selected to embark on the trip to Cameroon.
The
two are Yakubu Nkeki, Chairman of the Parents of the Abducted Girls from Chibok
Association, and Yana Galang, the group’s women leader.
“The
Nigerian High Commission will receive the two and will facilitate their access
to the two girls once permission to meet and verify their identity is obtained
from the Cameroonian authorities,” Shehu said.
Nigeria
and the rest of the world, The Nation gathered on good authority in Abuja
yesterday, are keen to hear revelations that may be made by the suspect if
truly she is one of the 219 girls abducted by the terror sect, Boko Haram, from
the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State in April, 2014.
Government
has been unable to establish the whereabouts of the girls which makes their
rescue difficult.
Well-placed
sources confirmed last night that the ‘Chibok girl’ was yesterday flown from
Maroua in northern Cameroon to the capital, Yaounde for debriefing and
identification.
Abuja
was however monitoring development last night.
The
Defence Headquarters was said to be waiting for information on the development
from the Multi-National Joint Task Force of which Cameroon is a member.
The
source said: “From the situation report, the girl was taken to Salak Airport in
Maroua from where she was flown to Yaounde for debriefing and proper
identification.
“The
debriefing of the suspect will begin later today (last night). Apart from
Nigeria, many countries are interested in the latest development.
“The
Federal Government is monitoring the situation in Cameroon to get the true
picture of who was arrested.
“All
I can assure you is that a bilateral understanding will prevail at the end”
A
military source said the Cameroonian military was yet to link up with the
Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) with the appropriate communication.
“So,
the Nigerian military authorities cannot make any categorical statement. Even
when we get information from Cameroon, we still have to verify it.”
It
is expected that the girl, if truly is among the missing Chibok students, will
shed light on their abduction, their treatment by the terrorists, the fate of
the other girls and the like.
#BringBackOurGirls
group which was set up to arouse public interest in the fate of the Chibok
girls said yesterday in Abuja that it was expecting official information from
the Federal Government on the matter.
Spokespersons
for the group- Aisha Yesufu, Oby Ezekwesili and Hadiza Bala Usman, said in
statement in Abuja that they could not respond immediately to the news
“conclusively until we have facts from the Nigerian government; from whom we
requested and have eagerly been awaiting official information on the matter.
“In
the interim however, our thoughts are as follows:
i.
“The claim by the young woman that she is a Chibok girl should reawaken the
Nigerian government to the zeal and commitment necessary for ensuring that they
are rescued and brought back;
“This
development suggests that we now have a possible source of credible
intelligence as to what transpired, where the others are, and other leads
required to facilitate their rescue.
ii.
“Regardless of whether she is one of our Chibok girls or not, our thoughts and
sentiments remain the same:
1) using children, girls who
should be in school (or any humans at all) as suicide bombers is not only
tragic and cruel, it is completely reprehensible and we denounce it;
2) these children suicide
bomber are themselves victims, and must be seen and treated as such;
iii.
we all must hasten to free all those in captivity. For as long as they are with
the monsters, we all are ourselves unsafe and equally in captivity;
1) a few weeks ago, a girl
suicide bomber did not detonate her device at an IDP camp because she knew her
family was most likely in that camp, and she could not kill them.
It
is important to send out messages that counter the programming of the
terrorists. This may help in empowering these victims from detonating the
explosives and accessing help;
1) this particular
experience highlights the importance of building not only a regional coalition
among neighbouring countries to counter terror, but a global one.
“The
Nigerian government as a matter of urgency needs to swiftly act to ascertain
the facts of this matter and make them public. It is getting to 24 hours since
the news broke.
“We
need to know her name and identity, her parents’ names, where she is from,
possibly extract DNA samples for quick testing and matching, etc.
“This
should be a wake-up call to the Nigerian government to adopt and utilize our
citizens-developed tool the Verification, Authentication, and Reunification
System (VARS) designed by our movement for such scenarios as these. This tool
was accepted by the federal government on 8 July 2015 during our meeting with
the president, but has not been deployed.
“Likewise,
the Missing Persons Register which would have been useful in tracking this
young victim in order to commence her rehabilitation, reunification, and
reintegration process with her family and community.”
Each of the two girls in Cameroon
were said to be carrying explosives weighing 12 kilogrammes.
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