Abducted Chibok Girls; Lest They Become Future Suicide Bombers?

By Blogger

These 3 women were recently arrested by soldiers as wives and accomplices of Boko Haram
(Photo By Nigerian Army )

(After a popular demand for a review of the Title of this piece, the blog has decided to rechristen  it to the above title)

A story that has not been independently verified by this Blog was told recently of a family attacked by Boko Haram in an obscured Nigerian border community near Cameroon, during which the insurgents, in their usual style looted virtually every food item from the poor locals and even torched some building and vehicles before leaving.

But on that fateful day, the terrorists did not restrict their robbery to food and material things - they also went away with a very beautiful teenager who was a daughter of a respected Islamic cleric.

Those who know the community very well, said the girl, being the youngest in the large polygamous family, was a pet of the aged cleric.

She was stolen when the cleric was out on visitation to families in a next village.

Upon his return, the cleric was told of the attack on their community and how their household was visited and looted. Everyone in the house was scared to tell the father about the abduction of his pet-daughter, as all feared the old man could be devastated.

But when they later summoned courage to tell him; the old man said he could condone every other things that happened as an act of fate, but certainly not his dear daughter.

"He picked his kettle, and praying-mat, then informed the family that he was setting out to Sambisa to bring back his daughter", said Ahmed Aliyu, a resident of Banki another border community near Cameroon.

 "Against all pleas and cries from the family who felt the old man was embarking on a suicide mission, he left for Sambisa.

Hafsat Usman, wife of Boko Haram kingpin, Usman Bako, who
had been wanted by the military since 2012. She was arrested while leading
the two women to Sambisa
  

He eventually made it to Sambisa, and the man was said to have been arrested by some Boko Haram guardsmen who took him to their leaders because he demanded so.

"When he was dragged before the leader of the camp, who quizzed him about his mission, the man said he came to take his daughter back home; even as he was bold to  reprimanded for taking his daughter without his consent. He pointed out to them if they wanted to marry her, they should have come and ask for her hand in marriage as Islam prescribed, and then he would have the authority of granting their request or denying same.

"Having seen the courage of the old man, the leader smiled and ordered the girl to be brought out for her father. But the leader quickly informed him that the girl might not be of use to him any more, because she has, within that short period, been indoctrinated. The old man accepted the girl, even as he noticed some little reluctance in her as he was taking her away. 

"Back at home, the family's joy over the teenager's return turned sorrow, because the very lively girl that they knew some day ago had changed and now speak in support of the cause of Boko Haram and condemned the Islamic beliefs of her parents".

"The parents had since been junketing from one cleric to the other seeking for special prayers for the return of their daughters "sanity" which seemed to have been tampered with since her abduction for about two days", said Aliyu.

The above narration may sound fantastic, yet it could be a valid tale.

It is worrisome that till date, no one could explain the magical powers the Boko Haram deploys in engaging young minds to carry out deadly attacks and even suicide bombings.

Aisha Kabiru, one of the three women arrested
by the Nigerian military

It was on record that there had never been a reported case of female suicide bomber until June 8, 2014, which was about two months after the Chibok Schoolgirls were abducted. Many eyewitnesses that gave the account of the incident that occurred near a military check point in Gombe town, which is located  about 350km away from Maiduguri the northeast capital of the restive state of Borno, said the female suicide bomber was a teenage girl dressed in Hijab.

Reports held that  the girl was brought on a motorbike, and as a rule of thumb, bikers have to  disembark from their ride to walk across any check post. But in the case of the girl, the man that brought her on a motor bike did not go across the check post, in stead he simply dropped her and made a U-turn., while she began to walk across the check post.

The soldiers sitting at a distance from the check post, got attracted by the unusualness of a girl being dropped off a bike and allowed to continue her journey on foot. One of the soldiers beckoned on her and tried to question her, the lady whose mission was not known quickly hugged the soldier and then the explosive device on her body went off, killing her and the soldier.

That incident was unfortunately ignored as one of those acts of Boko Haram. The authorities in the Nigerian security outfits have not looked critically into that  act of girl suicide bombing, and probably try to analyses why using female teenagers now.

Zainab Idris, one of the three women Boko
Haram arrested by Nigerian military

"This was coming at the time over 200 schoolgirls are in the custody of the Boko Haram, a deadly group that had even released a video showing some of the girls professing their acceptance of Islam as their new fate", said a security expert whose name cannot be named in this Blog for reasons that are official.

"It is dangerous for all of us if these girls continued to remain in the captivity of the terrorists without serious effort being made to rescue them. The danger is that most of them will, by now, either resigned to fate and even accept or assimilate with their new environment or they may have by now be subjected to some kinds of esoteric maneuverings that will change their minds; or they may have by now gotten prepared to help the Boko Haram carry out dangerous missions just like the one the Gombe girl-suicide bomber did".

Former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo had on the 11th of June, 2014 made a saddening revelation that most of the girls may never come back home, except few ones that would later become pregnant for the terrorists who may not have means of attending to the baby and the mother that may be released to return home.

Mr Obasanjo said "I believe that some of them will never return; we will still be hearing about them many years from now. Some will give birth to children of the Boko Haram members, but if they cannot take care of them in the forest, they may release themselves.”

Many opinions in the country recognize Mr Obasanjo as one who could help broker a dialogue and possible truce with the terrorist that may see the girls gaining freedom but he seemed hamstrung by the country's anti-terrorism law that prevents an individual from meddling in issues of terrorism without the nod of the government.

It still could not be explained why the Federal government, despite the global outrage on the abduction of the Chibok Schoolgirls, is doing nothing to rescue the girls e

ven as they would clock 100 days in the next few days.

The danger here is that Nigeria faces a future of a high profile terrorism which (God forbids) would involve women in the front rank of terror attack. That may turn out to be the sad situation, if something, strategic is  not done very urgently, to ensure that these girls are brought back home.

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