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Parents of abducted Dapchi girls who were released by Boko Haram have revealed that the terrorists told them not to send their children back to school for western education.
The girls were released by the terrorists on Wednesday, March 21, 2018. Security operatives were not available as the terrorists reportedly drove into Dapchi town surreptitiously, while joyful residents celebrated the return of their children and praised President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to Premium Times, the terrorists took their time to preach to the residents. One Ibrahim Husseini who is a Dapchi resident said: “It was a thing of joy for us in Dapchi when suddenly we began to see trucks moving into the town at about 8:00 a.m in the morning. “They brought the girls and then they were telling the general public that they should not go back to Western education schools; that what they did was not terrorism but rather the propagation of Islamic knowledge.”
Kachalla Bukar, who is the secretary of the abducted Dapchi schoolgirls’ parents’ group, said he was on hand to receive the girls and even took pictures with the terrorists. He said: “But we, the parents of the missing girls, did not run as other villagers did, because we cannot run and leave our girls in the hands of the Boko Haram. “When they came, they told us that they were returning the girls not because somebody gave them money, but out of their freewill. We thanked them. Then they told us that we must never return our girls to western school again; we said we will do as said. They preached to us for some time, and we said we will heed to their sermons. “They shook our hands and asked us to forgive them for whatever pains that they might have caused us; then we shook hands and they asked us to snap photos with them using their mobile phone which we all did.” Haruna Driver who is a father of one of the abducted girls said he was happy for his daughter’s return. He said: “When the news came to me, it was like a dream. But when I saw my daughter, I and her mother shed tears of joy. “Sadly, we could not spend much time with her before she was taken to the hospital and then to Abuja. We thank God for His kindness and mercy on us. We thank the president and all those that worked hard to see that our daughters return to us safely.”
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government of allegedly staging the abduction of the schoolgirls in Dapchi, Yobe State, for ‘political purposes’.
The party’s national publicity secretary, Kola Olagbondiyan, described the abduction as a crime against humanity, and called on the United Nations to investigate the matter.
The Federal Government in its reaction accused the opposition PDP of plumbing the depths of infamy for saying the adoption and release of the Dapchi schoolgirls were stage-managed.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said such postulation portrays the PDP as an inhuman, insensitive, unpatriotic and unworthy party.
He said the Dapchi girls were negotiated by friendly countries and reputable international organizations, it would have taken a conspiracy of global proportion to have stage-managed the
adoption and release of the girls.
Alhaji Mohammed said the reaction of the PDP amounts to an expression
of sour grapes, especially because the party failed woefully – when it was in power – to quickly resolve a similar abduction of schoolgirls.
”As we have said many times since the abduction of the Dapchi schoolgirls, no government is exempted from its own share of tragedies. What makes the difference is the way such tragedies are managed. Whereas it took the PDP all of 18 days to even acknowledge
the abduction of the Chibok girls in 2014, the APC Federal Government acted promptly and responsively when the Dapchi schoolgirls were abducted 19 Feb. 2018, hence their quick release,” he said.
The Minister said it is unfortunate that the PDP that failed woefully as a ruling party has also failed grievously as an opposition party, going by its insensitive and crude response to the release of the Dapchi  schoolgirls – a development that calls for non-partisan celebration.
”In its 16 years in power, the PDP redefined governance as cluelessness, massive looting of the public treasury and crude exhibition of power. In its over three years in opposition, the PDP has again shown it does not understand the role of the opposition in a democracy. How then can the PDP convince Nigerians that it has learnt its lessons and that it is ready to rule the country again? Nigerians must say ‘never again’ to this primitive and soulless party,” he said.
Alhaji Mohammed said the Federal Government has not been responding to
the amateurish and jejune statements from the PDP precisely because the party has failed to learn the ropes of being an opposition party, ”even when we have advised them to take a crash course on the role of the opposition in a democracy.
”We broke our own rules this time because the PDP over-reached itself and scored an own goal at a time it could simply have congratulated the government and people of Nigeria on the release of the girls or
just keep quiet,” he said.
The Minister assured Nigerians that the Federal Government will intensify the ongoing efforts to secure the release of the remaining Chibok girls and return them safely to their families, just like over 100
other Chibok girls who have so far been released, unlike the PDP that could not secure the release of even one of the girls before it was booted out of power.