Dapchi parents reach agreement with Boko Haram not to allow their daughters receive Western education

PARENTS of the recently-released Government Girls Science Technical College (GGSTC) pupils have revealed that they reached an agreement with the terrorists not to send their daughters back to school again.

Yesterday, 110 GGSTC Dapchi schoolgirls, who were abducted from their boarding school by Boko Haram last month, were released. Apparently five of the girls who were kidnapped on February 19 died while in captivity but the remainder of them were driven in nine vehicles into Dapchi yesterday morning, where there were received by large crowds.

Parents of abducted girls said the terrorists told them not to send their children back to school to receive western education and they agreed to this. Surprisingly, security operatives were not available as the terrorists reportedly drove into Dapchi town where residents celebrated the return of their children and praised President Muhammadu Buhari.

Upon arrival, the terrorists, who came unarmed, took their time to preach to local residents. After talking to them, the terrorists took pictures with local residents and shook hands with them before driving off.

Dapchi resident Ibrahim Husseini, said: “It was a thing of joy for us in Dapchi when suddenly we began to see trucks moving into the town at about 8 am in the morning. 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.”

Kachalla Bukar, who is the secretary of the abducted Dapchi schoolgirls’ parents’ group, added: “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 and then they told us that we must never return our girls to western school again and we said we will do as said. They preached to us for some time and we said we will heed to their sermons."

He added that they shook their hands and asked them to forgive them for whatever pains that they might have caused the people. According to Mr Bukar,  they then shook hands and Boko Haram asked them to snap photos with them using their mobile phone which they all did.

Haruna Driver, a father of one of the abducted girls, said: “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. 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."