By Lillian Okenwa
Heavily pregnant and clutching a three-year-old toddler, Hauwa Maltha another Chibok school girl has finally left captivity after nine years.
Although her rescue has brought so much joy, Nigerians continue to hope that other Chibok school girls will return home before this administration expires on 29 May.
According to Leadership, troops of 114 Task Force Battalion of the Nigerian Army in Bita, Borno State in Northeastern Nigeria, rescued the 26-year-old said to be one of the Chibok school girls abducted on the night of April 14, 2014, from their school dormitory at Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno state.
Hauwa Maltha with serial number two on the list of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls, was said to have been rescued by the troops on April 21, 2023, along with her three-year-old baby during the troops’ operations in the Lagara area of Borno State.
While in captivity, Hauwa who hails from the Kibaku tribe in the Chibok Local Government Area of the state was reportedly married off in Gulukos to one Salman, a cameraman to the late terrorist leader, Shekau.
Salman was said to have died in Lake Chad, and after his death, the hapless girl was remarried to one Mallam Muhammad in Gobara and had two children with him.
Her second husband, Mallam Muhammad, was eventually killed in Ukuba terrorist enclave in Sambisa Forest during clashes between JAS/ISWAP rivals.
Since her rescue, Hauwa, who is about eight months and two weeks pregnant, has reportedly undergone thorough medical examination along with her baby.
After she has been certified to be medically fine, she and her baby, Fatima, will be handed over to the Borno State Government for further management.
276 female students were kidnapped by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok on the night of April 14, 2014.
Barely two weeks ago two girls escaped from their captors at Sambisa Forest. The Chibok school girls’ escape that Sunday was 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. Today the number of Chibok schoolgirls in captivity has reduced from 96 to 95.
As members of the Bring Back Our Girls, BBOG movement in their nine-point demand, insist that the outgoing administration of President Muhammadu Buhari must 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 maintains that the Nigerian authorities failed utterly to learn from the heartbreak of Chibok town in Borno State and, ultimately, to protect children.
