By Zakariya Musa
Praise God for the return of four girls who were abducted from Kautikari, in the area of Chibok in northeast Nigeria, on Jan. 14, 2022. Kautikari village is located east and about 20 kilometers drive from Chibok town, predominantly occupied by Christians.
The girls were abducted by ISWAP, according to Ayuba Maina, the District Church Council secretary for that district of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria). He said the girls are still with the Nigerian military in Chibok, where their parents met them.
The girls are Lami Yarima, age 9; Na’omi Titus, age 18; Hauwa Gorobutu, age 17; and Rahab Thumur, age 20.
Chibok, which is about 150 kilometers from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, has continued to suffer a series of attacks from both Boko Haram and ISWAP. Recently, members of the Chibok community have called for an end to the attacks in the area, seeking the return of the schoolgirls believed to still be in Boko Haram captivity. Kibaku Area Development Association (KADA), an association of people from Chibok, spoke during a press conference in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, on Saturday. The group lamented that since the outbreak of insurgency over a decade ago, the area had been attacked more than 72 times, with more than 407 persons killed.
“On behalf of the entire Chibok community, we are using this medium to once again call on President Muhammadu Buhari to rescue Chibok community, an ethnic nationality, from total annihilation by the Boko Haram terrorists. This is because since the mass abduction of 276 of our daughters on April 14, 2014, where about 57 escaped on their own, we still have 110 of them still unaccounted for,” said KADA national president Dauda Iliya.
“We call on all well-meaning Nigerians and Mr. President in particular, to rise up to the occasion and urgently save our people from total annihilation and starvation.”
CHANNELS reported that the group also advised the federal government to seek support and synergize with the armed forces in tackling insecurity in the region. While asking the government to set up a camp for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the community, the association is still hoping for the safe return of the remaining 110 schoolgirls abducted more than seven years ago.
— Zakariya Musa is head of Media for Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria).