Unlimited joy, ecstasy as freed Chibok girls meet parents

By OKOSUN DENNIS

Cry of joy, tears of victory and emotion laced with hugging, parting at the back best describes the scene in Abuja on Saturday as parents of the 82 freed Chibok girls were reunited after over three years of abduction by Boko Haram terrorists.

National Daily recalls that over 270 girls were abducted at their school dormitory on the 14 April, 2014. They were conscripted into Islam while some were forced into marriage.

The 82 kidnapped Chibok girls were released by Boko Haram Islamists earlier in the month after 21 others were freed before through intensive negotiation.

As fathers gripped their daughters, so mothers shrieked with joy, wiping away tears streaming from their eyes as their joy knew no bound.

A parent to one of the girls, Yakubu said, “All of us had lost hope, we thought the girls would not be returned.”

National Daily learnt that the parents would attend church service with the girls on Sunday, before returning home early next week.

To further their rehabilitation, the girls would stay in a government facility in Abuja where they are receiving therapy and vocational training.

ALSO SEE: Unanswered questions to the Chibok girls saga

According to the Minister for Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan, said that the government’s goal is to have all the rescued Chibok girls back in school by September.

The Minister, who was represented by the Director Planning, Research and Statistics in the ministry, Mrs. Abidemi Aremo, said a group of experts have been put together to address the girls’ psycho-social support and medical needs.

Boko Haram had seized 276 girls from Chibok town in April 2014. It led to global condemnation to the buffoonery of the insurgents.

National Daily gathered that only 106 girls have either been released or found by the military since their abduction three years ago.

Since terrorists started their evil ideology, over 20,000 people have dead while displaced persons stood at more than 2.6 million from their homes and from other humanitarian and food crisis it galvanised.