Freed girls won’t continue education in Chibok —FG

The Department of State Security Service (DSS), on Tuesday, handed over the 82 Chibok girls released by Boko Haram after being in captivity for about three years.

The girls, who have been undergoing some medical check-ups at the medical facilities of the DSS since their release, will henceforth undergo some skills acquisition and remedial programmes at the National Council for Women Development.

The programme will last till September, when the school year will begin and the girls will be enrolled in other schools within the country.

Addressing journalists during the handover ceremony, the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Aisha Alhassan, said the ministry had engaged another doctor and two nurses to further the medical attention on the girls who arrived.

She added that the girls had been divided into four classes and each of the classes had five teachers who would take the girls on skills acquisition and remedial programmes.

“We have one doctor for the 24 girls, but now we have engaged another one and we have engaged two nurses because the number of the girls have increased to 106. Therefore, we have two in-house doctors here and two in-house nurses.

“The medical facilities of the DSS will always be available to us in case there are medical issues we cannot handle here.

“The girls have been divided into four classes and each class have five teachers, we are training each girl on two skills of their choice.”

It will be recalled that 24 girls were initially released from captivity before the 82 were released, making the number of girls released 106.

Speaking further on the girls’ education, Alhassan said “while they are here, they will be doing ICT training which is compulsory, they will be doing remedial studies; they will be studying five subjects which are English, Mathematics, biology and Agricultural Science.”

The minister, however, said the girls would be sent back to school to continue from where they stopped, adding that the girls would not return to the Government Secondary School, Chibok, where they were abducted from, instead they would be enrolled in other schools within the country.

“All of them will go back to school together, because if we keep them beyond September, it means that they will lose another school year. They are not going back to their former school, we are taking them back to other schools within Nigeria,” the minister said.

However, Alhassan said the girls were free to go back to their parents if they wished, adding that if any of the girls indicated interest of returning to her family, the government would not hold her back, instead her parents would be invited to take such home.

“If anyone of them today says she wants to go home, we are very pleased to call her parents, it means that she has forgotten the trauma and ready to reintegrate.

“They are here of their own freewill, no compulsion, they are free to go home anytime they want. We are keeping them here on the consent of their parents,” she added.

Handing the girls over to the minister, the Director Medical Services of the DSS, Dr Anne Okorafor, said though some of the girls needed continued medical attention, they were medically stable and ready to move to the Ministry of Women Affairs.

“We have done the necessary investigations on the girls, whatever we found during the investigation, we have treated. Some of them still have some medical issues and we are treating them. They are all stable and we are comfortable to move them to the ministry,” Dr Okorafor added.