Return of latest Chibok girls, proof that the CIA never rescued any girl: A week after a Chibok girl weds in America, her two schoolmates emerge from terror captivity with kids after 12 years. Lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe celebrates the return of the latest #Bringbackourgirls escapees as further proof that the CIA never rescued any girl
Emmanuel Ogebe and others celebrating with one of the Chibok girls on graduation
Graduating Chibok girls
Academic laurels
I was delighted to learn of the return to freedom of more Chibok schoolgirls in the world’s longest-running school mass abduction which happened incidentally while I was on medical mission in northeast Nigeria recently.
Jinkai Yama’s escape 12 and a half years after the 2014 atrocity is a triumph of hope and the human spirit over terror, evil and despair.
Interestingly, Jinkai who revealed she was married to eight terrorists for whom she had two children (just like her unidentified second escapee) emerged days after the wedding of one of the 10 escaped Chibok girls I sponsored to America 12 years ago.
Deborah Ishaya, one of two escaped Chibok girls who set the record as the first to graduate from an American High School with their diplomas in 2017 got married in the U.S. the week before Jinkai’s escape to freedom. Deborah made history graduating with multiple honors and awards from a prestigious international high school in the U.S. capital region.
Deborah’s wedding brings to four the number of Chibok girls I relocated to US who have now married. Joy Bishara was the first to marry two years ago, Patience Bulus and then Lydia Pogu and Deborah who got married just this year. Only one of them married a Nigerian. All have since completed their degrees and some masters degrees while two are already mothers.
It is sad that the four of them in America combined married 50% fewer husbands than Jinkai alone. This speaks to the barbaric and brutish circumstances of her captivity and negatived free will.
Jinkai’s escape sparks encouragement as it also asks questions.
She has stated on camera exactly where her latest “husband” is in Gwoza the declared caliphate seat of Boko Haram of over a decade. Why hasn’t Nigeria liberated Gwoza all these years whose indigenes are still refugees in Cameroun?
She said she hasn’t spoken to her family and doesn’t know if they are alive. Why didn’t the government prioritize reconnecting her with her family even if by phone in the initial stages?
Jinkai stated clearly that she was always thinking of them throughout captivity and that she would look to their guidance on whether to return to school. They are thus the primal reason she came back and reunion is imperative for her mental health and recovery and should be promptly facilitated by the government.
Jinkai’s escape also debunks spurious claims that the girls do not wish to return.
The book “The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA” (Crown Books, October 2023) which claimed an alleged rescue operation of some girls by the U.S. spy agency in Sambisa forest said, CIA agent “(Molly’s) third posting was Nigeria, where in April 2014, 276 female students had been kidnapped from a Christian boarding school in Chibok by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram… Working with the British and French, they hoped to get all the girls in one fell swoop, but some had been married off to fighters and were reluctant or unable to leave their babies, at least not right away. But they did get thirty at one time.”
However in half a dozen reports I cast serious doubts on the claims including proving the release of 21 and 82 girls in 2016 and 2017 respectively and not 30 at any point whatsoever.
In an email to the author, Liza Mundy, I stated, “The problem with your story is that it gives the erroneous impression that the U.S. reached the girls in captivity and they chose to remain thus no one should really look for them anymore because of their alleged ‘choice.’ “
The very fact that Jinkai and others are still escaping a dozen years later disproves claims that they never wanted to return. If even Boko Haram fighters are escaping the hardship of life in Sambisa forest to surrender, why in the world would these girls want to live there?
I commend the Nigerian Army for successfully facilitating the recovery of these young women and countless others. May God bless their efforts.
ESCAPED CHIBOK GIRLS’ HISTORICAL RECORDS
- First Chibok girls to earn high school diploma in America 2017 – Deborah Ishaya and Amina Thlawur
- First Chibok girl to obtain associate degree in America 2019 – Palmatah Mutah
- First Chibok girl to obtain bachelor’s degree 2021 in America – Palmatah Mutah
- First Chibok girl to obtain bachelor’s degree in American University of Nigeria, Yola 2021 – Mary Katambi
- First Chibok girls to obtain master’s degrees in America 2022 – Joy Bishara and Lydia Pogu
- First Chibok girl to obtain a doctorate degree in America 2024 – Godiya Simon.
- Largest number of Chibok girls to graduate at once at AUN – 2026 Rifkatu Solomon & 11 others.
None of the five girls taken over by Murtala Mohammed Foundation set any academic record. Of the above US records set, only #6 was not brought to US by me.
- First Chibok girl to marry in America – Joy Bishara 2024 followed by Lydia Pogu and Deborah Ishaya 2026 (three out of the four Class of 2017 American High School graduating set.)
