Chibok Girl Released under Boko Haram Captivity that has since
been under rehabilitation and supervision of federal government is to visit
their families back home in Chibok.
106 of them was released by boko-haram sect on May 7, 2017,
seven months after 21 of them were released in october2016.
The Government at the centre made these known During
a press briefing on the update of the girls’ situation in Abuja on Friday. The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajia Jummai Alhassan ,
appealed to Nigerians to avoid making the 106 released Chibok girls to recount
the ordeal they suffered while in the captivity of the Boko Haram insurgents.
Alhassan said any request to the girls to recount their
experiences in the hands of the Boko Haram terrorists could reopen old wounds
and create a setback to the process of their emotional recovery.
The minister said the girls had been able to overcome most of
the challenges that they were having such as flashbacks, insomnia and nightmares.
She added that the initial fear the girls had about going
back to school and continuing their education had been overcome.
According to her, the 106 girls will be returning to their
respective communities in Chibok every holiday just like every other pupil in
the country.
She said, “The girls have been provided psycho-social support
services to help erase unpleasant memories and override their traumatic
experiences. So far, they are now stabilised and most of their traumatic stress
disorder symptoms have been overcome and previous frequent incidents of
flashbacks, insomnia and nightmares have now been successfully brought under
control.
“Through rigorous and extensive time with social workers,
counsellors and psychologists, the girls are now looking forward to a bright
and promising future.
“I will like to appeal to the press and the general public to
avoid making requests for these girls to recount their stories and experiences
while in captivity so as not to reopen old wounds and trigger a relapse in
their journey to recovery.
“The girls are not kept in isolation, they are going to the
university, they are not going to be kept in isolation and to answer your
question, the girls will never come back to Abuja again. As for these 106
girls, when school closes, they would go back to their homes.
“So, they are not kept in isolation, and they will return to
their homes and that is why we said that they are now ready for full
integration into the society. From school, they are going back home on holidays
just like any other child.”
When asked why all the 106 girls were being confined to a
single school in the North-East, Alhassan said that the American University of
Nigeria, Yola, Adamawa State, was the only institution with the foundation
programme required for the girls.
She added that some of the over 50 girls who escaped were
taken to private schools in Jos and Zaria but the schools were said to have
told the government when contacted that they did not have the capacity for such
a large number of girls.
Alhassan stated further that while so many girls had been
recovered by the security forces, the Federal Government decided to give a
special treatment to the case of the Chibok girls because they were taken away
while in custody of the government.
She also stressed that the negotiation for the release of the
rest of the Chibok girls still in custody had not been suspended.
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