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Parents of abducted Dapchi schoolgirls who were released on Wednesday by Boko Haram insurgents said upon returning the girls, the insurgents preached to them and warned against returning their children to western schools.
The parents also confirmed that no soldier or security operative was present in the community to confront the insurgents for the almost one hour they spent in the community.
Dapchi village burst into joyous mood as residents chorused Baba Oyoyo, Baba Oyoyo, in apparent appreciation of President Muhammadu Buhari, whom they felt engineered the negotiation of the girls as he promised them when he visited last week.
“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”, said Ibrahim Husseini, a resident of Dapchi.
“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,” said Mr. Husseini who said his sister was among the released girls.
Kachalla Bukar, who is the secretary of the abducted Dapchi schoolgirls’ parents’ group, said he received a phone call from relatives in Gumsa town that they saw Boko Haram gunmen coming towards Dapchi with the girls.
He said when he broke the news to the villagers, the people became scared and began to flee in fear.
Mr. Kachalla said he and other parents of the missing girls stood and watched as Boko Haram drove into the village in the same kind of vehicles that they used to take the girls away about 30 days ago.
He said he did not only wait to receive the girls, but also exchanged pleasantries with them and even took a selfie using the insurgents’ camera phones.
“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.”
Sources in Dapchi said the Boko Haram gunmen began to leave the town at about 9:00 a.m., but stopped midway out of the town to fix their deflated tires.
Haruna Driver, a resident of Dapchi and father to one of the abducted girsl, Amina Haruna, said he could not believe that his daughter could return to him so early.
“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,” he said.
“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.”