Haram showing some of the abducted
Chibok schoolgirls
The delay in freeing the over 200 girls
seized from Government Secondary
School, Chibok, in Borno State, may
have exposed them to radicalisation by
their captors, who are now using them
for suicide bombings, a source told
Sunday Vanguard at the weekend.
The source spoke about the possibility
that the girls had been indoctrinated by
the terrorists in the last three months of
their captivity, hynotised and sent into
various parts of Nigeria and beyond
with a view to carrying out deadly
missions.
Serial attacks carried out by female
bombers in Kano, last week, lent
credence to the claim.
The source, who has contacts with the
Boko Haram leadership, pointed out
that it may be difficult to change
radical orientation of the girls, who may
now see their malevolent disposition as
an act of righteousness.
"It may shock you to know that some of
the girls being used for suicide
bombings in parts of the North are
among those taken from Chibok in April
this year," the source said.Continuing,
the source insisted that "it is rather
unfortunate that government wasted
precious time in rescuing the girls either
through negotiation with Boko Haram or
other means possible.
"It was clear from the outset that the
girls would not come out the same, after
being kept with their unwanted hosts for
a long time".
Although the Federal Government said,
last Wednesday, that the Chibok girls
were not among the female bombers,
its spokesman did not provide any
evidence to prove his claim.
At a media briefing in Abuja,
Coordinator
of the National Information Centre, Mr.
Mike Omeri, tried to ward off the
suggestion that the 219 school girls
currently in the captivity of Boko Haram
insurgents could have turned suicide
bombers.
It will be recalled that few days after
the abduction of the girls, a human
rights activist, who had taken part in
failed bids to broker a truce between
the Federal Government and Boko
Haram leadership, Shehu Sani, had
raised the alarm that the girls could be
indoctrinated if not urgently freed.
Sani told Sunday Vanguard, in an
exclusive interview in May, that the
prolonged detention of the girls by the
terrorists could dramatically alter their
fate and orientation.
According to Sani, the longer the girls
were being kept by their captors, the
higher the potential of their being
brainwashed to accept radicalism and
terrorism.
He said:"But the danger of keeping
these girls, without either using
negotiation or force to free them is that,
everyday these girls are being
brainwashed by the insurgents.
" If we are not careful, the Chibok girls
that would come out of captivity would
not be the same girls that went into
captivity. They would be indoctrinated,
they would be hypnotised and
brainwashed to the point that they
would be transformed into insurgents
themselves. And of what use would they
be?
"These are very young girls in their
teens with very open and vulnerable
minds but open to dangerous ideas.
You can see how a man would abduct a
girl whose parents don't like him and,
by the time the girl comes back she is
ready to fight her parents.
"So, the danger is that as the clocks
ticks, it is ticking for us , for the girls and
for our reputation and integrity as a
country".
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
0 comments:
Post a Comment