By EMMANUEL OGEBE

- Three priests abducted last weekend alone

- Train kidnap victims in third month of captivity

Another abducted Chibok school girl has just been found less than 10 months after the escapes of fellow captive Chibok schoolmates Ruth Ngladra and Saratu Musa from terrorists last year.

Nigeria’s military reportedly found a Mary Ngoshe however community leaders tell us her name is Naomi Dauda Yahi from Askira Uba Local government in Borno State and confirm she is one of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls.

It is clearly a tribute to the triumph of the indomitable human spirit that Mary desired freedom and ultimately got it. This repudiates the propaganda of the last Boko Haram video featuring the Chibok girls which claimed that they were no longer interested in returning to “the land of infidels.

I have communicated the news to the US congresswomen who traveled to Nigeria in 2014 and have actively advocated for the girls and to some of the Chibok girls in the US.

It is disheartening that while we’re laboring with these old cases, fresh abductions were still occurring making Nigeria the school mass kidnapping capital of the world. This week, an Anglican Bishop, a catholic priest and members of a Pentecostal church in central and southern Nigeria were abducted in a one month spree of weekly clergy abductions.

The combined effect of Boko Haram’s and the Fulani militia terrorism has maintained Nigeria as the most dangerous place for Christians in the world.

On the same Pentecost day over 50 worshippers in St Francis Catholic Church in Ondo state were massacred, Fulani bandits aided by a Nigerian Airforce helicopter killed 32 and destroyed an ECWA church in Kajuru, Southern Kaduna, victims report.

This Sunday they also killed scores in Edumoga in the north central Benue state in a different conflict theater from terror-plagued northeast – in one week alone over 120 innocent civilians were slaughtered in NW, NC & SW Nigeria.

Similarly it is outrageous that during a week in which several churches were attacked by Fulani militia, the government of Kaduna state also demolished a chapel construction site on the campus of a state university – the government now perpetrating similar terroristic acts on citizen.

Sadly in the same pattern of secrecy, witnesses say their phones were confiscated by the government so they couldn’t record the church site destruction by the state government.

The Kaduna State government is urged to promptly address this atrocity and the refusal to allow the rebuilding of chapels at the ABU federal university destroyed 11 years ago by Muslim rioters.

COMPARATIVE HISTORY OF ESCAPES

The most remarkable story of escape is Sola, arguably the world’s longest sex slave, who escaped after over 22 years captivity in the forest. Sola reunited with her daughter who is now married and has children of her own. She left behind a grown son and daughter with the Islamist bandits.

Sola’s longevity in captivity is similar to the story of Guo Gangtang’s reunion with his son in China abducted 24 years ago.

It was also reported that captive teenager Leah Sharibu and two of her schoolmates who were abducted from school in Dapchi in 2018 similarly escaped from the terror camp. Unfortunately they ran into Fulani Herdsmen who returned them to the terrorists after three days. Her two Muslim classmates were ultimately released with the others but Leah remains a captive to date – four years later – for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. She has two kids in captivity.

Only last year, after 14 years, a teenager returned to his mum Rose – both pleasantly surprised to find each other alive. He was seven years old when Rose put him in a drum that fateful day...She put in a child and got back a young man.

Incidentally Rose was featured in three books – two by former US Presidential adviser Johnnie Moore – Martyrs Oath and Next Jihad and Justice Under the Shadow of the Almighty – Autobiography of a distinguished jurist Justice JO Ogebe https://www.amazon.com/Justice-Under-Shadow-Almighty-Life-Sojourn/dp/B0875RS6NR

(I think you might like this book: “Justice Under the Shadow of the Almighty: My life –

Sojourn to the Nigerian Supreme Court” by James Ogebe.Start reading it for free: https://a.co/aS9mT7r)

It was an epic turn to a gut-wrenching tragedy. It is one of the finest redemptive moments in human rights work...this is an incredible testimony of hope and heroism. As I said then,

“This should be an inspiration to Leah’s relatives, the Chibok girls’ families and many others on the power of the resurrection.”

The first report of a sighting of a Chibok girl carrying ammunition for Boko Haram during an attack in Chibok was seven months after their 2014 abduction.

The girl communicated with a villager in the local Kibaku language and gave her a message for her mom named “Binta”.

After verifying that there was indeed a widowed Chibok parent named Binta, the message was relayed to her about the captive who identified as her daughter.

One year and six months later, that captive schoolgirl escaped with her baby and returned to her mum in May 2016. On the day of her escape, our database identified her accurately as Amina Ali who had sneaked a message to her mum during the November 2014 attack on Chibok. (The details of this remarkable incident are available in the book The Chibok Girls: The Boko Haram Kidnappings and Islamist Militancy in Nigeria (Paperback)

By Helon Habila associate professor of creative writing at George Mason University, USA)

This was the first major escape of a Chibok girl two years after the abduction. Naomi’s is the latest – eight years and two months after.

Unfortunately, Mary’s father just died two weeks and will miss the reunion with his daughter. There are now 108 schoolgirls still missing.

•Emmanuel Ogebe of US NIGERIA LAW GROUP, Washington, USA.

•PHOTO: International human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe pictured holding the name of Chibok girl Amina during the visit of US Ambassador to UN Samantha Powers weeks before Amina escaped in 2016 (Photo credit US NIGERIA LAW GROUP)

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