Excitement As Freed Chibok Girls Are Reunited With Their Parents

It was an emotional scene for everyone that were present as the 21 freed Chibok girls reunited with their parents yesterday in Abuja.

The Nation reports the Bible-clutching girls danced and sang with joy during the service attended by top government officials and a few other guests.

chi-dance1 — Some of the Chibok school girls recently released from captivity dancing at a special thanksgiving service held in Abuja, yesterday.

The event got to its high pitch as the parents arrived at the venue while the service was ongoing. It was their first meeting after two and a half years of separation.

The excited girls ran, crying to parents who were equally so excited to see them.

One of the freed girls, Deborah Jafaru‘s father explained how his daughter was taken and how grateful he was.

He said:

“Unlike the others, Deborah had already finished her secondary school; she did not make her papers and returned to rewrite her WASCE when she was taken.

She just got married two weeks before returning for her papers and they took her, her husband has remarried now. They abducted her with pregnancy and she had my grandchild there but I’m just grateful to God and the government for returning my daughter and grandchild to me safely. Words cannot describe how I feel at the moment.”

Deborah is the only one among the girls who returned with a baby.

Gloria Dame, who spoke on behalf of the girls after the service, recollected how they went without food for “one month and 10 days’’ in the bush.

Speaking in Hausa, Gloria, who is Number 139 on the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement’s list of abducted girls, said their survival in captivity was an act of God.

“I did not know that a day like this will come that we will be dancing and giving thanks to God among people.

For one month and 10 days we stayed without food. I narrowly escaped bomb blast in the forest.

We are praying to God to touch the heart of Boko Haram to repent and we are calling on Nigerians to pray and fast for the release of our remaining ones in captivity,’’ she said.

Another of the girls, Mariamu Lawal‘s mother pleaded with the government to rescue the other girls. She said:

“We are grateful to Buhari and all Nigerians for supporting us and ensuring the release of our daughters, we hope that the other girls are rescued as soon as possible, so their parents will have the opportunity to be as happy as we are today.”
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Father of Grace Gaphani added:

”I am grateful to God and Nigerians for not forgetting us, I had lost hope, I never thought that I would see my daughter again but God returned her to me, I am so grateful to God for giving me another chance with my daughter, I am entrusting my daughter in the care of the government, let them take care of her, give her all the education she wants, even if it means taking her to America, I give them the permission to do it. She has always wanted to be educated, now I want the government to help her attain the level of education she wants to attain.”

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Chibok Parents Association, Yakubu Nkeki said the parents would not be returning home with the girls.

“They have not been handed over to their parents completely because they are still undergoing some trauma counselling, we are not taking them back home with us, they are going to remain with the government, to ensure their welfare and health before they are handed to us.

We pleading with the government to find a reasonable school for them, we want them to continue with their education,” he said.

On the negative news making the rounds that the girls are ill and pregnant, he added:

“I have gone on the Internet and seen so many negative stories concerning our girls, some people say they are sick, some say pregnant and so many things but here we are today and our daughters are not looking ill or pregnant, they recognised us as soon as we arrived and were so excited, I just want people to stop spreading bad news about our daughters, people should please wait, verify before spreading news.”

Photo Credit: The Nation