Chibok parents says Serah Luka not on their list

The campaigners for the release of the missing Chibok girls have questioned the identity of the second rescued girl by the Nigerian army. The head of the Chibok Abducted Girls Parents group Yakubu Nkeki told the AFP that the army contacted him before an announcement was made on May 18 about the rescue of the first girl, Amina Ali. He said: “We were able to identify her and then establish her parents.”

However, there was no call before Nigeria’s army announced on May 19 that a second schoolgirl had been freed. The girl was said to be Serah Luka, who was among 97 women and children found earlier that day in the Damboa area of the northeastern state of Borno. “These are Kauna Luka Yana and Naomi Luka Dzakwa. Among the list of parents we have only four priests and none of them is Luka,” he added.

“Among the girls none of them is from Madagali. They were either from Chibok, Damboa, Askira and Uba (all in Borno state). So I can say… that this girl is not among the abducted Chibok girls. “We were never contacted by the military for verification of the girl’s identity before the announcement was made.” The freed girl told army that she was a Christian pastor’s daughter from Madagali, in neighbouring Adamawa state, and had been in Chibok to sit her exams.

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A senior Nigerian army source said it was “beyond reasonable doubt” that the schoolgirl was among the 219 held by the deadly sect since the abduction on April 14, 2014. “The military personnel who carried out the rescue operation and the civilian vigilantes who assisted them and those who know the girl confirmed that she is among those abducted,” he said. “We can only change our position if the principal of the school or the government of Borno state come out and refute this established identity of the girl.” The Nigerian army informed that  Serah Luka had been “rescued” along with 96 other women and children held captive by Boko Haram.

35 Boko Haram insurgents were also killed during the “clearance operations”. Meanwhile, the first escaped girl, Amina Ali Nkeki, met with President Muhammadu Buhari on May 19 in Aso Rock villa in Abuja.

Source; Naij