By Lillian Okenwa
It has been nine years since Hauwa, Esther, and 274 other teenage girls were forcefully taken away from their dormitory at Government Girls Secondary School Chibok, Borno State, on that harrowing night of 14 April 2014. It was the first mass student abduction witnessed in Nigeria.
About 108 of those girls have returned over the years and just days ago reports emerged that two of the abducted schoolgirls escaped from their captors at Sambisa Forest. Daily Trust reported that the girls escaped on Sunday as a result of intense military operations in the forest.
A security source said the girls were identified as Hauwa Mutah and Esther Markus. “One is from Chibok and the other one from Dzilang village,” he said. This has reduced the number of Chibok schoolgirls in captivity from 98 to 96.
Prior to this great escape, Head of the Intelligence Unit of the Joint Military Task Force, Operation Hadinkai, Colonel Obinna Ezuipke in his breakdown of the remaining girls in captivity said, “Out of the 276 abducted Chibok girls, 57 girls escaped in 2014 while 107 girls were released in 2018. Three girls were recovered in 2019, two in 2021 and 9 were rescued in 2022, bringing the total of 178 girls out of captivity and 98 remaining in Boko Haram captivity.”
While members of the Bring Back Our Girls, BBOG movement in their nine-point demand asked the outgoing administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to amongst other things brings back the captured girls before 29 May 2023, in a “push to finally defeat Boko Haram, ISWAP, and liberate all our citizens”, Amnesty International said the Nigerian authorities failed utterly to learn from the heartbreak of Chibok town in Borno State and, ultimately, to protect children.
Hopefully, the authorities will commence the much-needed psychological and every necessary therapy required to rehabilitate Hauwa and Esther; also bearing in mind that Leah Sharibu is still in captivity.
In 2021, Joy Bishara and Lydia Pogu, ex-students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok who escaped from Boko Haram in 2014, graduated from Southeastern University in the United States. Assisted by the Jubilee Campaign, a Virginia, US, based human rights group, and international human rights lawyer, Emmanuel Ogebe, Lydia and Joy relocated to the United States in August 2014.
Joy Bishara and Lydia Pogu managed to escape captivity by jumping off the truck while they were being carted away by the kidnappers. Bishara who bagged a degree in social work, and Pogu —a degree in legal studies, graduated on April 30, 2021.
Likewise, Mary Katambi, another Chibok girl who was lucky to escape in 2014 went to graduate from the American University of Nigeria (AUN) with a 2.1 degree in accounting. “I could not graduate with first-class honours, but I am delighted to say my determination, consistency, and hard work has paid off. I have graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting (2’1)…”
