I am happy that the Dapchi girls are all back home but I am deeply troubled by the fact that one of them was left behind and by the assertion that five of them died while in captivity.
The day the truth comes out about what really happened to the Chibok and Dapchi girls and those that were behind these two scams, Nigerians will be shocked and they will spit on the graves of the collaborators.
Meanwhile, I saw the pictures and watched the video of Dapchi residents cheering on and waving at Boko Haram insurgents as they dropped off the ‘missing’ girls. It was clear to me that they regarded the terrorists as heroes and I was compelled to ask myself the following question: are we really one country?
Why did the government inflate the number of the girls that were abducted when the kidnapping took place, six weeks ago? They claimed that 110 girls were missing, after which the school and the parents set the record straight, saying that 105 girls were kidnapped and not 110
So many questions need to be answered. For example, how do you explain the ‘Ghana Must Go’ bags that the girls were carrying on their return? Did they go shopping in Sambisa Forest? Or is it that when they abducted them, they gave them time to pack all their clothes and allowed them to bring them back when freed?
Another question that needs to be answered is this: why did the Federal Government lie to the international media that the girls were dropped off in Dapchi at 3.00am, when the footage and pictures of their return prove that the whole thing was done in daylight?
Why did the government inflate the number of the girls that were abducted when the kidnapping took place, six weeks ago? They claimed that 110 girls were missing, after which the school and the parents set the record straight, saying that 105 girls were kidnapped and not 110.
Could it be that they knew that in order to make their story more credible after money had changed hands and the girls were returned, they had to be able to say that at least, five of the girls died while in captivity, without having to actually kill any of them?
This seems to me to be the only plausible reason for telling this lie and sticking to it to the end, even though it had been exposed for what it was from the outset by the parents of the girls and the school authorities.
Again, why is the government telling the whole world more lies by saying that no ransom was paid in return for the girls?
It is common knowledge in intelligence and security circles that vast sums of money was paid to the terrorists and quite a lot of that money was possibly sent back to some of the government officials that were involved in the negotiations and the scam, as kickback.
The point is that, the whole thing was planned and agreed on well before the abduction ever took place. That is why our Minister of Defence could tell the Nigerian people just a few days ago that the girls would definitely be released within two weeks, at the most.
A few days later, they were dropped off by their terrorist abductors in Dapchi, after all the soldiers and security personnel that had been deployed in the area were withdrawn.
As the terrorists entered the town with the girls, they were hailed as heroes and received like freedom fighters by the locals, and not as if they were terrorists.
Some reports suggest that the massive crowd that received them were even chanting “holy warriors” in Hausa, as they marched through the streets.
This reminds me of the words of the massive crowds that welcomed Fidel Castro, Che Guevera, and their rebel fighters in Batitsa’s pre-communist Cuba, as they and their rebel fighters went from town to town during the days of the revolution.
In those turbulent days and despite Batista’s efforts to crush the revolution with full American support, as the communist rebels went from town to town, they were met and encouraged with chants of “Viva Fidel! Viva Che!” by ecstatic crowds and the rest is history.
In Dapchi and other parts of northern Nigeria too, the crowds chanted “holy warriors” as Boko Haram marched through their villages and the streets of their towns. The implications of this are obvious and clear to the discerning.
When they arrived in Dapchi, the Boko Haram insurgents not only interacted with the crowd openly with smiles on their faces, but they also spoke to the parents of the girls, apologised to them about what happened and told them not to allow their children to go to school again.
Apart from the fact that they made vast sums of money in their deal, which they will now use to buy more arms and organise more abductions, it is clear that this whole thing is the greatest public relations stunt for Boko Haram ever since it began its operations seven years ago, and they have won many friends and admirers as a consequence of it.
The narrative that they would not have abducted the girls had they known they were Muslims, though false, seems to have resonated with the local Muslim population in the north and this can only help Boko Haram and swell
its ranks.
Someone is giving them very good advice and counsel and I suspect that, that person or group of persons is in government and is also in one or more of our intelligence and security agencies.
They are working with Boko Haram in the same way that the dreaded Pakistani intelligence agency-the Inter-Services Intelligence, widely known as ISIS, works covertly and in collaboration and collusion with the jihadist terrorist organisation that is known as the
Taliban.
Whichever way you look at it and whatever you believe, there can be little doubt that a terrible precedent has now been set and we can expect many more Boko Haram abductions in the next few months, after which money will change hands again and the girls will be released and
returned.
This is especially so because the 2019 elections are approaching and the government possibly needs to raise funds to build up its
war chest.
*Asiwe is the publisher of an online news publication: huhuonline.com
