Is President Buhari Lying Over The Chibok Girls Scandal?

Amina Ali, one of the chibok girls rescued from boko haram

The release of one of the Chibok school girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014 has generated more controversy than jubilation, following the barrage of inconsistent information that trailed the release of the hapless young lady.

According to a statement by Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman, the army spokesperson, the rescue of the Chibok girl, occurred on Tuesday, May 18.

The statement detailing how the girl was released stated that: “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.”

Subsequent information by the military authorities stated that the rescued girl and her baby were handed over to Governor Kashim Shetima of Borno state, while her supposed husband was undergoing further investigation at the military joint intelligence centre.

Then, after President Muhammadu Buhari received at the presidential villa, Abuja, the rescued Chibok girl, Amina Ali, alongside her family, there was disinformation in the media that the president had also received the suspected Boko Haram member claiming to be the husband of the girl. It was reported that Buhari referred to the so called husband as her brother, thereby sparking a backlash from Nigerians who saw the rescue of the girl as a hoax.

First rescued Chibok girl, Amina Ali and her family being received by President Buhari.

However, the presidency in a statement later dismissed the reports that Buhari received the rescued Chibok girl alongside the suspected Boko Haram member.

According to the statement, the man who accompanied Amina to meet Buhari was her brother and not her supposed husband, who is an alleged Boko Haram commander. But this only added more controversy to the saga following information in some quarters that the rescued girl Amina, was is the only child of her parents.

While Nigerian were still grappling with the inconsistencies trailing  Chibok rescue, the Nigerian army dropped a bombshell that another Chibok girl named, Serah Luka had been rescued, making the whole rescue saga look more like a grand plan.

The credibility of the second rescue claimed by the army was later challenged by the Bring Back Our Girls (#BBOG) advocacy group which said the second returnee Chibok girl, Serah Luka was a senior secondary school one student of government secondary school, Chibok at the time of her kidnap.

The group said according to Haruna Mutali, a community leader in Chibok, their background checks have revealed that this second returnee, Miss Serah Luka was an SSS 1 learner at GSS Chibok, who was abducted by the insurgents in her home in Madagali.

This denial by the #BBOG advocacy group sparked the conspiracy theory that President Muhammadu Buhari had arraigned the fake rescue of the Chibok girls to divert attention from the on-going strike by the labour unions over the removal of fuel subsidy.

According to advocates of this theory, the said rescue of both girls was a scam because Amina Ali who was reportedly preparing to write her WAEC exams at the time she was kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014 could not speak English.

Echoing this sentiment was former militant leader Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dokubo who released a statement via his Facebook page, insisting that no schoolgirl was kidnapped from Chibok and the news of girls being rescued was all a scam.

He said:

PASS THE MESSAGE….NO MISSING CHIBOK GIRL HAD BEEN FOUND….BECAUSE NO GIRLS WERE MISSING….CHIBOK IS A SCAM.

I don’t think many of us still remember that the Kidnap Chibok Girls were science students studying for the final physics WAEC Examination at the time of their abduction. The school was not in session during the attack but the SS3 students (Girls) were kept the school hostel to sit for the last paper.(NAIJ.COM)