Borno State Governor kept them under house arrest until he arrived on the 26th to have his picture taken with them.
The man is a disgrace and a huge embarrassment to a
country which doesn't need any more embarrassment
Government gives in to girls' demands to go home to
Chibok but bars them from leaving legislator's house
The Associated Press Chibok but bars them from leaving legislator's house
One of the 21 Chibok school girls released by Boko Haram carries her baby during their visit to
meet President Muhammadu Buhari In Abuja, Nigeria, Oct. 19. The girls were not permitted to
visit their families at home over Christmas, a human rights lawyer says. (Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters)
Kidnapped girls freed from more than two years of captivity by Boko Haram Islamic extremists were prevented by Nigerian officials from spending Christmas at home with their families, said relatives and a lawyer on Tuesday.
The news raised questions about Nigeria's handling of the 21 girls freed in October through negotiation mediated by the Swiss government and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Nearly 300 girls taking science exams were kidnapped from a government boarding school in the northeastern town of Chibok April 2014. Dozens escaped within hours, and some 200 others remain captive. The mass abduction brought Boko Haram world attention and sparked an international social media movement to #BringBackOurGirls.
Those freed in October have been held for trauma counselling and rehabilitation in Abuja, the capital.
So, why don't the counsellors go to Chibok rather than keeping the girls prisoner in Abuja. They are going to need the counselling more when they return to society than when they are deprived of normal life, family and familiar things.
Kept at legislator's house
They demanded to spend Christmas in their hometown, which is a Christian enclave in a mainly Muslim area. The government tried to appease them, saying it would fly their parents to Abuja, human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe said.
He said the girls insisted on being at home and arrived in Chibok on Christmas Eve, but were held at a legislator's house.
Unbelievable!
Christmas Day passed, but they were not allowed to see their parents until Borno state Gov. Kashim Shettima showed up on Monday with cameras to have his photograph taken officially presenting the girls to their parents, Ogebe said.
"In terms of a Christmas family reunion, this has got to rank amongst the world's most spectacular failed parties," Ogebe told The Associated Press by phone from his base in Washington. "The Grinch — or in this case, the government — stole their Christmas this time. Not the terrorists."
'The Grinch — or in this case, the government —
stole their Christmas this time. Not the terrorists.'
- Emmanuel Ogebe, human rights lawyer
The mother of one girl and the father of another told the AP that the girls wanted to attend Christmas service at their church but were told they had to remain at the legislator's house for their security. The relatives spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing repercussions from the government for them and their daughters.
The Bring Back Our Girls movement, Human Rights Watch and lawyers like Ogebe, who has organized scholarships in the United States for some of the girls who escaped the night of the abduction, are asking if the traumatized girls have escaped one form of captivity for another.
Thousands rescued, then detained
Nigeria's army has freed thousands of people from captivity by Boko Haram this year as it has driven the extremists out of towns and villages where they had declared an Islamic caliphate. Most have been detained for interrogation in appalling conditions that have resulted in the deaths of newly freed hostages and their babies, Amnesty International has reported.
President Muhammadu Buhari this week declared that Boko Haram had finally been "crushed," driven out of their last stronghold in the northeastern Sambisa Forest where they were believed to be holding many Chibok girls. The government said this week that negotiations to free the rest of the girls continue.
How about negotiating the release of the girls who have already been released? Haven't those poor girls been through enough? Keeping them from their families and churches over Christmas for photo-op scheduling is unbelievably cruel and insensitive, and probably set back many of those girls in whatever progress they had made in their recovery. He should be sued and forced to resign, at the very least.
The military victory in Sambisa, which could not be independently verified, is unlikely to end the deadly suicide bombings and attacks on remote villages and army camps staged by the insurgents.
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