Another Chibok Girl Gains Freedom - Presidency

Acting President Yemi Os­inbajo on Wednesday an­nounced the recovery of another Chibok schoolgirl, 12 days after the release through negotiations of a set of 82 of the girls abducted by Boko Haram on April 14, 2014.
President Muhammadu Bu­hari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, said that Osinbajo made the an­nouncement to cabinet members during the weekly Federal Execu­tive Council (FEC) meeting at the State House, Abuja.

According to him, “Yes, at the Federal Executive Council’s meet­ing, the Acting President broke the cheering news to members of the cabinet and after that, I have also spoken to defence people who confirmed it.
“The details are yet to be ful­ly unravelled. But in terms of if it is true, yes, it is true. I learnt she is being brought to Abuja, but I have not seen her,” Adesina said.
While dismissing the threat of Boko Haram regrouping to cause fresh havoc, Adesina expressed the hope that the remaining Chibok schoolgirls and other Nigerians in captivity would soon be rescued.
He said: “One thing you can be sure of is that this government has the capacity to confront any security challenge that arises. So, if they are regrouping, they will be flushed out again.
“I believe that we have seen the worst of that insurgency. We are in a mopping up process and I believe the exercise would soon be completed,” he said.
Apart from the 82 girls re­leased last week in exchange of some Boko Haram commanders, 21 of the girls were released in Oc­tober last year and another three also regained their freedom, in separate circumstances.
Over 276 girls were abduct­ed by Boko Haram terrorists from Government Girls Second­ary School, Chibok, Borno State three years ago at the height of the group’s insurgency in the North East.
And in its series of letters from African journalists, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has profiled the lawyer who bro­kered the release of 82 Chibok girls.
In the narration, the BBC said that when 57-year-old Zan­nah Mustapha arrived for the hand­over of the 82 Chibok girls freed from Boko Haram after three years in cap­tivity, a militant read out the girls’ names from a list.
“One by one, the abducted schoolgirls, now women, lined up along the outskirts of a forest near Kumshe town, on the border be­tween Nigeria and Cameroon. Each of them was covered from head to ankle in a dark-coloured hijab,” the medium said.
“I went ahead of the Red Cross. They (the militants) brought the girls to me,” said Mustapha, a lawyer from Borno State.
Mustapha has been mediating between the government and mil­itants for the release of the Chibok girls and for an end to the Boko Har­am insurgency.
Previous attempts had failed, with different groups coming for­ward, each claiming to be the mil­itants in possession of the missing schoolgirls.
It was Mustapha who succeeded in convincing the Nigerian authori­ties that this particular group should be taken for what they say, presiden­tial spokesman Garba Shehu alleg­edly said.
“He had dealt with them in the past and they keep to their word,” he said. Mustapha’s role as mediator dates back to his founding the Future Prowess Islamic Foundation School in 2007, to provide free Islamic-based education to orphans and the poor.
When the Boko Haram insur­gency erupted in 2009, the school of­fered admission to the children of sol­diers and government officials killed by the militants, as well as those of militants killed by the state.
Mustapha then sought the assis­tance of the International Commit­tee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which began providing free meals to the pupils.