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In
this Oct. 13, 2016 photo released by the Nigeria State House, Nigerian
government officials welcome some of the freed Chibok school girls at the state
House in Abuja, Nigeria. Families and a lawyer said on Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2016,
Nigerian officials prevented the freed Chibok girls from spending Christmas at
home with their families. The news raises questions about Nigeria's handling of
the 21 girls freed in October by negotiation with Boko Haram. (Sunday
Aghaeze/Nigeria State House via AP)
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Kidnapped girls freed
from more than two years of captivity by Boko Haram Islamic extremists were
prevented by Nigerian officials from spending Christmas at home with their
families, relatives and a lawyer said Tuesday.
Associated
Press report continues:
The
news raised questions about Nigeria's handling of the 21 girls freed in October
through negotiation mediated by the Swiss government and the International
Committee of the Red Cross.
Nearly
300 girls taking science exams were kidnapped from a government boarding school
in the northeastern town of Chibok April 2014. Dozens escaped within hours, and
219 remain captive. The mass abduction brought Boko Haram world attention and
sparked an international social media movement to #BringBackOurGirls.
Those
freed in October have been held for trauma counseling and rehabilitation in
Abuja, the capital.
They
demanded to spend Christmas in their hometown, which is a Christian enclave in
a mainly Muslim area. The government tried to appease them saying they would
fly their parents to Abuja, human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe said.
He
said the girls insisted on being at home and arrived in Chibok on Christmas Eve
but were held at a legislator's house.
Christmas
Day passed but they were not allowed to see their parents until Borno state
Gov. Kashim Shettima showed up on Monday, with cameras to have his photograph
taken officially presenting the girls to their parents, Ogebe said.
"In
terms of a Christmas family reunion, this has got to rank amongst the world's
most spectacular failed parties," Ogebe told The Associated Press by phone
from his base in Washington. "The Grinch, or in this case the government,
stole their Christmas this time. Not the terrorists."
The
mother of one girl and the father of another told the AP that the girls wanted
to attend Christmas service at their church but were told they had to remain at
the legislator's house for their security. The relatives spoke on condition of
anonymity, fearing repercussions from the government for them and their
daughters.
The
Bring Back Our Girls movement, Human Rights Watch and lawyers like Ogebe, who
has organized scholarships in the United States for some of the girls who
escaped the night of the abduction, are asking if the traumatized girls have
escaped one form of captivity for another.
Nigeria's
army has freed thousands of people from captivity by Boko Haram this year as it
has driven the extremists out of towns and villages where they had declared an
Islamic caliphate. Most have been detained for interrogation in appalling
conditions that have resulted in the deaths of newly freed hostages and their
babies, Amnesty International has reported.
President
Muhammadu Buhari this week declared that Boko Haram had finally been
"crushed," driven out of their last stronghold in the northeastern
Sambisa Forest where they were believed to be holding many Chibok girls. The
government said this week that negotiations to free the rest of the girls
continue.
The military victory in Sambisa, which could not be independently verified, is unlikely to end the deadly suicide bombings and attacks on remote villages and army camps staged by the insurgents.
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