I want to be Nigeria’s president, says Chibok girl

ONE of the rescued Chibok girls, who is now studying in the United States, Mercy Paul, has revealed her life ambition to run for the Presidency of Nigeria someday.

Paul, who revealed her ambition to the former Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, in his new book, entitled: “Facts Vs Fiction: The True Story of Jonathan’s Years, Chibok, 2015 and the Conspiracies,” said she would return to Nigeria after her education in the United States and contest the presidency.

Omokri wrote in the book: “I began this chapter with the story of Patience and Mercy. Mercy is very shy and reserved, but when asked what her future ambition is, she states that she wants to get the best education the United States can offer and then return home to contest for Nigeria’s Presidency.”

Omokri had opened the chapter by revealing that he went on the trail of Mercy and Patience Bulus, who escaped from the Boko Haram abductors in 2014.

The book also stated that Omokri trailed the duo, who are currently taking their General Educational Development tests in a school in the East Coast of the United States.

He said the girls revealed that the Chibok girls kidnapped by Boko Haram were initially taken to Maiduguri and not Sambisa forest as widely believed.

The book also revealed that the girls were camped in the house of a “top politician” and later moved to Gwoza.

“Let me state, for the benefit of conspiracy theorists, that I was able to trace some Chibok girls now living in the United States and from their testimony, it is clear beyond a shadow of doubt that there was a kidnap of a large number of girls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok. There is no doubt about that. The incident is real, it happened, it is a historical fact.

“According to Patience Bulus and Mercy Paul, who were students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok and were there on that day, Boko Haram terrorists came calling at their school with a trailer.

“They could not identify what type of trailer it was beyond saying that it was similar to the type used by the Dangote Group. The Dangote Group generally uses trucks manufactured by China’s Sinotruk and they are heavy trucks and trailers that certainly have the capacity to carry 276 girls.

“According to Patience and Mercy, they were initially told by the terrorists that they were there to rescue them. One of their leaders asked in the Hausa language, ‘what are you doing in this school’? It was a rhetorical question. Mercy and Patience were both in that truck but jumped down, at great risk to themselves, while it was moving en-route to Sambisa Forest, Boko Haram’s hideout.

“When asked why most of the Chibok girls could not speak in passable English, even though they were meant to be writing a Physics examination, Patience revealed that most young people in Chibok communicated in Hausa and that though their teachers tried to teach them in English at school, they communicated more in Hausa even while at school.”

Omokri also revealed that the Air Force, which was on the trail of the abductors, were given conflicting signals, apparently to ensure the girls remained in the hands of their abductors.

“Multiple dates in April, 2004: The military, principally the Air Force, was given conflicting information as to what direction the fleeing terrorists took when they captured the girls. Were these conflicting information a deliberate effort to send the military on a wild goose chase?

“Flash Forward to January 6, 2017: One of the Chibok girls who escaped from her captors granted an interview to the New York Times and revealed that they were not taken to Sambisa Forest by the terrorists as previously thought. According to her testimony, they were rather taken to the Borno State capital of Maiduguri and kept at a house there for months.

“Flash Forward to January 11, 2017: Chibok community leader, Pastor Bulus Baba, in an interview with local media, corroborated the New York Times report and said even after they left Maiduguri, they were moved to another town and kept in the home of an influential local politician.”

According to him “the girls said, they spent over eight months in Gwoza Local Government Area along with other abducted women. They said they were kept at a residence of one of the top politicians in that local government area until at a point when a fighter jet dropped bomb that torched part of the house.”