[News] 100 Chibok girls relunctant to return home - Community leader

Chairman of the Chibok Development Association, Pogu Bitrus has disclosed that more than 100 of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls are not willing to leave their captors.

Bitrus who was involved in the negotiations in obtaining the release of the girls said they were comfortable with their current location.

According to him, the unwilling girls may have been radicalised by Boko Haram, or are ashamed to return home because they were forced to marry extremists and have babies.

He advised that the 21 Chibok girls freed last week in the first negotiation release between Nigeria’s government and Boko Haram should be educated abroad, adding that they may likely face stigmatization in Nigeria.

The community leader said the girls told their parents that they were separated into two groups earlier on in their captivity and given the choice of joining the extremists and embracing Islam, or becoming their slaves.

Bitrus said the girls were used as domestic workers and porters but were not sexually abused. He said the group contains the 21 who were released last week and the 83 who the government said it was negotiating their freedom.

The freed girls and their parents were reunited on Sunday and are expected to meet with Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday or Wednesday, Bitrus said.

President Muhammadu Buhari said on Monday that his Government is prepared to talk with Boko Haram as long as the extremists agree to involve organisations like the International Committee of the
Red Cross, which was an intermediary for last week’s release.

Some 276 school girls were kidnapped from their school in Chibok, northeast of the country on April 2014.