Like the scary scene of targeted killings of women in the run-up to the 2000 elections in Ghana, the much talked about abduction of over 200 school girls by Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram, in Nigeria is gradually turning out to be a scam.
Since news broke out about the abduction of the schoolgirls at Chibok, a town in north-eastern part of Nigeria, there has been contradictory accounts by persons who claimed to be living witnesses to the horrific act. This triggered many questions in the whole saga.
Therefore, several well-meaning Nigerians and non-residents alike have started questioning the veracity and authenticity of the claim of the abduction.
Whiles others are linking the whole abduction claim to Nigeria?s divisive and often bloody politics, others contend that global geo political theatrics is embedded in the ?supposed? abduction. Coincidentally, Nigeria will be heading for the polls next year and so the stakes are high.
What even makes the purported abduction of the over 200 schoolgirls looked more curious and symptomatic of a stage-managed exercise is the account of the principal of the Government Girls Secondary School and reactions from the leader of the Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau.
When news of the abduction broke out almost a month ago, the Principal of the school was alleged to have stated that she was present when men in military uniform came and took away the girls “One hundred and twenty nine girls were kidnapped from the school on Monday night by suspected members of the dreaded sect. However, 14 of the students were able to escape when one of the trucks in which they were being carted away broke down”. Mrs Asabe Kwanbura told the BBC Hausa Service in Maduguiri.
However, the Vanguard newspaper also quoted the same principal later stating that she was away for medical treatment in Maduguiri when the incident happened and that she was called by one of her daughters who broke the news to her.
Subsequent to her account, news broke out in the Nigerian media that the girls have been sold for N2, 000, then all of a sudden the leader of Boko Haram, Shekau, popped out on CNN and You Tube purported saying ?they said I have kidnapped some girls. Yes I have. They are not supposed to be in school, they should have been married long ago. So, I am going to sell the girls. Who said there is no market for the girls? I will get market for them, I will sell them.?
What many may not have taken note on Shekau?s statement which was interpreted from the Hausa language was when he stated ?Ok, since you claimed we have abducted the girls?, yes, we have abducted them, and we would be offering them for sale??
Clearly, reports in the media may have prompted what the leader of the Islamic terrorist group came out to say. More worrying, however, is the conspiracy of the silence by the 60, 40 and 30 year old women who were reported to be writing exams at the school where the girls were picked up.
Strangely, while the daughters of the principal and female teachers were present at the time of the abduction being blamed on Boko Haram, none of them were kidnapped and there are also reports that some of the girls escaped and no gun was fired so not a single child was killed.
When the news broke out about the abduction, it took Boko Haram some time to claim responsibility. This was after almost everybody in Nigeria and the international media had blamed the abduction on them.
Even more mindboggling questions of how over 200 school girls were transported from the school without any neighbor noticing it, and where they are been kept and fed without anybody getting a hint of it for well over three weeks should attract everybody?s concern.
The operations of Boko Haram has been such that because they don?t control any specific territory in Nigeria, they move from one place to another to avoid been apprehended by the security forces. This obviously means that they will be moving within Nigeria and possibly neighboring Chad and Cameroun with their over 200 ?cargo? and shockingly nobody has seen traces of them?
Videos of the so-called girls who have been abducted were yesterday shown on the international media but their parents have not been clearly identified, instead; there has been global protest from women in support for the search of the yet to be identified children.
Meanwhile, the governor of Nigeria’s Borno State said he had information on the whereabouts of the schoolgirls.
Governor Kashim Shettima said he had passed reports of the locations of the girls to the military for verification. He added that he did not think the girls had been taken across the border to Chad or Cameroon.
The governor?s revelation came a day before a new video was purportedly released by Islamist militants showing around 130 of the girls kidnapped from a school in Nigeria last month.
The group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, said they would be held until all imprisoned militants had been freed. He said the girls had converted to Islam. The video, released on Monday, claims to show them praying.
Few days earlier, leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo posted a comment on his facebook wall suggesting that the widely-reported news of missing school girls in Nigeria was a scam.
The NDPVF leader wrote: These are the right questions begging for answers?..The truth can be told by any one?it still remain the truth. A girls school where 60, 40 and 30 years old women?were writing the same exams.
The principal out for medical treatment?that is after making us believes she was present when men in military uniform came to take away the girls.
The girls trekking almost two kilometers out of Chibok to be ferried away by waiting vehicles in the middle of a very dark night without any one of them attempting to run away.
A Deputy-director impersonating as parents of the ?missing? girls.
A senator knowing all the details of the movement and condition of the ?missing? girls.
A global movement coming alive to protest on the ?missing? girls?.calling only for the resignation of President GoodluckEbeleAzikiwe Jonathan?nobody calling for slight sanction against the Governor of Borno State who against the counsel of WAEC and the federal ministry of education allowed the girls to write the exams in Chibok?.Who is funding this global movement and for what purpose?
What is the relationship between the APC and Boko Haram?…why was it possible for the APC government in Yobe state to conduct local government election without the sound of a single knockout?
What superior security arrangement do they have and why was it not deployed in Chibok to prevent the ?abduction? of the girls?
Stop playing this evil politics?.Pass the message NO GIRLS ARE MISSING
The Nigerian government has faced heavy criticism of its response to the mass abduction but President Goodluck Jonathan said on Sunday that assistance from abroad had made him optimistic of finding the girls.
Source: The Alhajj
