10 years after Boko Haram abducted over 200 female secondary school students preparing for their final examination and graduation in Borno State, a victims of the kidnap, Amina Nkeki, has recounted how she and other schoolchildren were forcefully picked from their school, marriage and escape from the terrorists inside Sambisa forest.
Nkeki said that though she has regained freedom and could live freely and fulfill her dream, but some of her colleagues, about 100, were still in Boko Haram den since their abduction on April 14, 2014.
She added that some of the victims have gave birth to four children for insurgents who held them hostages after their kidnap from the school 10 years ago.
Nkeki, who regained freedom in 2016 with a baby and a Boko Haram fighter who claimed to be her husband, disclosed this on Monday while responding to questions on a popular television programme.
“Some of them are mothers of three children, four children. It’s not easy for them,” Nkeki said of 92 of her colleagues still in captivity. She said they will be going through hunger and sicknesses and other challenges of motherhood in the forest.
Nkeki, now a 200-level student of Mass Communication at a University in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, said “I feel so sad because that place is not a good place for anyone”, expressing hope that her colleagues would “be released one day”.
Asked about the welfare of her baby, Nkeki said, “She is fine, she is living here in Yola”.
‘How I Escaped’
Narrating how she escaped in 2016, Nkeki said, “I escaped when soldiers were in the forest to fight those Boko Haram people. They (insurgents) were running to the bush to hide and we (the hostages) also ran.
“After that, we went our own way. That was how we escaped but because of how big the bush was, and we didn’t know our way, it took us one month plus before we came out (of the forest).”
‘Why I Married Boko Haram Fighter’
Nkeki said she agreed to marry a Boko Haram fighter while in captivity because she viewed the path as a route of escape from her abductors. “For me, I married so that I will get freedom to go where I wanted and from there, I will escape”.
She said the insurgents threatened them to marry them or became their slaves for life.
“They told us that if we didn’t agree to marry them, we are going to be their slaves. So, because of that fear, some of us thought instead of being slaves, let’s get married.
“That’s how some people decided to get married. And some people took all the risk. Some of us got married that may be it will be a way for of escape, most especially a person like me,” she said.
