Freed Chibok Girls Pleading To Return To Their Captors, IGP Reveals

The Inspector General Police, Usman Alkali-Baba has revealed that some of the abducted Chibok girls who recently returned and reunited with their families have expressed willingness to return to their captors.

The IGP said this while speaking on the status of internal security at the weekly briefings coordinated by the Presidential Media Team in Abuja.

IGP baba noted that some of the abducted girls, especially those who were forced into marriage and had children for their captors only returned to see their families.

He said, “The issue of Chibok girls you know they are coming out one after another and gradually. Sometimes they come out and say yes, we have come to see our parents and we want to go back.

“So, maybe they have been assimilated or acclimatized with the situation and indoctrinated and had become part and parcel of those who have abducted them.

“But like as I’m saying, it is a continuous effort and even last month, you saw a Chibok girl coming out with two or three kids and said she only came to greet her parents and she wants to go back. So, we are still on it, there is hope.”

Recall that the Boko Haram terrorists had abducted 270 Chibok girls from Chibok town, Borno State in 2014, but over 100 have since been freed or managed to escape.

In August 2022, Ruth Ngladar Pogu and a man, she revealed to have been married to in captivity surrendered to the Nigerian military, with her two children.

That same month, Falmata Lawal and her child were rescued by troops of the Nigerian Army. Also in September, Asabe Ali with her one-year-old child was rescued by troops of the 21 Special Armour Brigade in Bama.

IGP Baba while speaking on the issue of insecurity said, “There are a lot of other things that can be done. We were able to rescue the whole of Forestry students in Kaduna through negotiation.

“We were able to rescue many others, which I can give you an example, for those that we are in contact with, there are things that we are doing, it is a new crime and requires new ways of approaching it and new ways of dousing it.

“Clearly, it is under study. For instance, the issue of Train negotiators and so forth were not an issue before, but now we are looking into it and we are putting our personnel to undergo such training and courses. So, we will not say hope is lost. We are still on it”.

He, however, noted that the Force has increased security presence on major roads to check the rate of crime in the country.