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We’ll do it again to ensure the freedom of remaining girls
FG will grant parents access to see their daughters
Some of the girls need to undergo medical surgery
The Federal Government, on Thursday, said it had no apologies or regrets whatsoever for swapping the recently released (82) Chibok girls for suspected Boko Haram members in its (FG’s) custody.
The government also explained that some of the girls will have to undergo medical surgery for various ailments.
The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Jummai Alhassan, who said this at a press conference in Abuja, stated that the girls were undergoing treatment that would take a few weeks to complete.
TheNewsGuru.com reports that no fewer than 276 schoolgirls were abducted over three years ago, while 82 were released after negotiations involving the Swiss Government, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Federal Government on one side and the terror sect on the other.
Twenty-one of the girls were released in October 2016, but had yet to be reunited with their parents.
The minister said results of the medical tests so far conducted on the 82 Chibok girls, who were kidnapped from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, in April 2014, had shown that some of the youngsters needed to be operated upon.
She stated that the medical screening, being carried out on the girls, would be completed between two and three weeks.
“The 82 Chibok girls are currently undergoing medical screening in Abuja. Some of them need surgery; this should be completed in two to three weeks,” she said.
Alhassan stated that before the arrival of the 82 girls, the Federal Government had been taking care of the 21 previously released girls and four babies.
She added that the 21 girls came back in bad shape and spent almost two months under medical care and were handed over to her on December 22, 2016.
The women affairs minister explained that the parents of the 21 girls were reunited with their daughters within one week of their return in October 2016.
“Upon return, all the 21 Chibok girls said they wanted to go back to school, but that they didn’t want to go to school in Chibok,” she said.
According to her, the girls travelled to Chibok for Christmas in December 2016 as soon as they emerged from medical care and spent two weeks there.
She said although they were scheduled to travel to Chibok again for Easter, security situation at that time was not conducive enough, so their parents were invited to Abuja.
Alhassan disclosed that it was the choice of the Chibok girls and their parents to stay under the care of the Federal Government in Abuja. Alhassan stated that the girls were scared of going back to Chibok.
At the press conference, the minister refuted reports that it had denied the parents of the 82 rescued girls access to their daughters, adding that the girls were not stopped from communicating with their parents.
According to her, those spreading such reports are not the actual parents of the girls but rather representatives of Chibok community, who feel they must have access to the girls.
The minister added, “We had a meeting with the parents of the 21 girls and the girls themselves and they all asked the Federal Government to send them to school and take care of them. Most of them are scared of returning to Chibok because of their experiences.
“But to show you that parents have access to their daughters, some parents just left the facility where the girls were kept three weeks ago after visiting the girls. One of the girls, who is married, is at present in Chibok, visiting the town with her husband and his family”.
On the 82 recently released girls, the minister said their photographs had been sent to families in Chibok for identification.
She stated, “The people complaining that they are not allowed to see the 21 Chibok girls are not their biological parents or guardians.
“Reports that we are preventing parents from seeing them are absolutely not true. The parents visit from time to time.
“We are very careful who we grant access to the girls. We will only grant access to their parents, not community members.”
The minister restated that the government would ensure the release of the no fewer than 113 of the schoolgirls still with the terrorists through negotiations or exchanging the girls with detained Boko Haram members.
She stated, “Negotiations are ongoing to exchange the remaining girls with Boko Haram detainees, we can’t afford to keep them any longer.
“We have no apologies or regrets whatsoever for exchanging Boko Haram detainees for our daughters. We’ll do it again if needed.”