The Federal Government is arranging to dispatch two members of the Chibok community to neighbouring Cameroon to verify and establish whether a female suicide bomber arrested in the country on Friday is one of the missing schoolgirls abducted in Chibok almost two years ago. Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant in Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, in a statement yesterday said that the Minister of Women Affairs, Senator Aisha Alhassan and Nigeria’s High Commissioner in Cameroon have already swung into action and are receiving a lot of cooperation from the Cameroonian authorities. According to Garba, it has already been confirmed that one of two girls was claiming to be among the girls kidnapped from Chibok on April 14 last year.
There is although doubts about the information as a result of revelation from Cameroon that the two girls were aged about 10 years.
“One of the two is also believed to be heavily drugged and therefore not in full control of her senses,” the statement added. Garba revealed that the Nigerian High Commissioner in Cameroon, Ambassador Hadiza Zakari Mustapha had confirmed that the arrested girls may be brought to the Capital, Younde by Monday, at which point the High Commission will seek permission to meet with them.
Meanwhile, the Murtala Mohammed Foundation has offered to cooperate with the Federal Government in sponsoring 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,” Garba noted.
Meanwhile, sequel to the reported confession by an arrested female suicide bomber in Cameroon that she is one of the Chibok girls, the BringBackOur- Girls (BBOG) group has said that the claim by the young woman should reawaken the Nigerian government’s zeal and commitment necessary for ensuring that they girls are rescued
The group in a statement yesterday, said the development suggests that there is now have a possible source of credible intelligence as to what transpired, where the others are, and other leads required to facilitate their rescue. The statement signed by the spokesperson of the group, Dr. Oby Ezekwelili, said that the government as a matter of urgency needs to swiftly act to ascertain the facts of the alleged confession and make them public.
“It is getting to 24 hours (48 hours today) 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,” the statement said. The statement further said that regardless of whether the alleged female suicide bomber is one of the Chibok girls or not, the group’s ideals and sentiments remain that 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;” it said, adding that the child suicide bombers are themselves victims, and must be seen and treated as such.
