Details have emerged as to how five of the abducted Dapchi girls died at the hands of their Boko Haram captors before the release of their colleagues to the federal authorities.
A report detailed in an online platform, News Plus Views, indicated that the girls died of heart attack and stress caused by the trauma of the abduction.
The report gave the names of the dead as Fatsuma Abubakar Jambo, 16 years; Falmata Mohammed, 14 years, Falmata Alhaji Inuwa, 16 years; Maimuna Adamu, 14 years and Aisha Abubakar 15 years.
Besides the dead, Leah Sharibu, is still being held by the militants said to members of the Islamic State in West African Province (ISWAP).
Though a military source said recently that the government is working behind the scenes to secure Sharibu’s release the report claimed that the five dead students were buried in shallow and unmarked graves.
While the military will not give out much about happenings around the release of Sharibu, the Bring Back Our Girls Group (BBOG) said it would take President Muhammadu Buhari to task on the release of Sharibu and remaining Chibok girls.
According to the group, the president must fulfil his promise of rescuing the abducted girls before commencing his re-election campaign.
The movement’s spokesperson, Sasugh Akume, told Sunday Tribune in Abuja that they would challenge President Buhari to secure the release of the girls from the insurgents.
The movement quoted the president to have insisted that “the war against Boko Haram cannot be said to have been won except all our Chibok girls and other people in captivity are rescued.”
He added that their group would be “challenging his basis for wanting to seek re-election as president if he could not fulfil his earlier promise of bringing back our Chibok girls. These are issues we are going to be amplifying going forward.”
While expressing fears that campaigns ahead of the 2019 elections may sweep the issues of the Chibok and Dapchi girls under the carpet, the Akume disclosed the group’s plan to commence intensive advocacy to ensure that the issues remain in the front burner.
He said: “We have been meeting every day since 30th of April 2014. In the next two months, INEC is going to lift the embargo on campaign and we are going to enter the election season; we are concerned that if our Dapchi girl, Leah Sharibu, is not back and 112 Chibok girls are not back, they could forget about them and be canvassing politics. We are going to be doing a countdown to the days when embargo on electioneering will be lifted and to ensure that our Chibok and Dapchi girls are brought back.”
On the threat to sue the Federal Government, Akume maintained that; “We are going to be announcing the update in due course; we are finalising with our actions and we are going to be announcing the update. We are certainly going to be suing the FG on all those counts.
“The government of Nigeria owes those children, their parents and community the duty to ensure that they are brought back. It is something that should never have happened,” he stated. (Tribune)
