One of the over 200 girls abducted by terrorist group, Boko Haram, from the Chibok Girls Secondary School in Borno state in April 2014 have been found and identified.
The Chibok girl, presumably, was rescued by members of the Civilian JTF, a paramilitary force that assists the military in the fight against insurgency in the north-east.
Former education minister and one of the leaders of advocacy group, BringBackOurGirls, Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili wrote on her Twitter page on Wednesday morning that the chairman of the Chibok community in Abuja confirmed the return of the kidnapped girl.
While the former minister did not exactly state how the girl was found and identified, her repeated inclusion of the tag, #CivilianJTF in her tweets, suggests the rescue was done by the paramilitary force.
However, our checks reveal that a vigilante group found her on Tuesday in the Sambisa Forest, close to the border with Cameroon. The activists said the recovered hostage is Amina Ali Nkeke.
Aboku Gaji in his eyewitness account said that he was taking part in a nightly patrol with the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF), a vigilante group set up to help fight Boko Haram, on the edge of the Sambisa Forest when the girl and some companions wandered out at about 7 p.m.
He said her name was Amina Ali Nkeki, and he recognized her as one of the missing schoolgirls, although she looked different and in poor physical condition. “Their bodies didn’t look good. They had had no bath and were in a dirty condition,” he said.
The young woman was part of a group asking for help, including a man who identified himself as her husband and the father of her baby, he said.
The man said that he had been kidnapped by Boko Haram from the town of Mubi, taken to Sambisa Forest and married to Nkeki.
Amina, who is nineteen year-old gave details about the well-being of other girls who were kidnapped along with her by Boko Haram militants.
In her words,“all the girls are in Sambisa forest, but six of them had died.” She added that the remaining girls were “well secured and protected” to stop the Nigerian Army from rescuing them.
After her rescue, Amina who is now with a four months old child and also pregnant, was taken to Chibok, where she was identified by her parents. A family member , Yakubu Nkeki, said his wife had a telephone conversation with Amina`s mother and confirmed that they had been reunited.
“It’s a joyful time for me,” said Nkeki, who is the father of another of the abducted girls. He said “the girl will be taken to the state capital Maiduguri on Thursday.”
However, the Nigerian authourities have taken credit for her rescue, Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman, acting director of Army Public Relations, who identified rescued girl as Falmata Mbalala, said she had been rescued by government troops at Baale near Damboa – an account corroborated by Lai Mohammad, Nigeria`s minister for information.
The Army said; “in continuation of Operation CRACKDOWN, troops of 25 Brigade Damboa in conjunction with Civilian JTF deployed in one of the blocking positions at Baale, near Damboa rescued one Miss Amina Ali and a suspected Boko Haram terrorist, Mohammed Hayatu, who claimed to be her husband. Both were brought to Headquarters 25 Task Force Brigade Damboa at about 2.30pm today.”
“Preliminary investigation shows that she is indeed one of the abducted Chibok School girls abducted by Boko Haram terrorists on 14th April 2014 in Chibok and her name is Amina Ali as against Falmata Mbalala that was earlier stated. In addition, she is a nursing mother with a 4-month-old baby girl who was named Safiya. Both the suspected Boko Haram terrorist and the nursing mother have been taken to Maiduguri for further medical attention and screening.”
