- As Over 300 staff shut down IMUTH over half salaries
The abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls from Chibok, Borno State by Boko Haram’s jihadist insurgency was the accidental outcome of a botched robbery, say the girls who spent three years in their brutal captivity.
The Chibok girls made the surprise revelation in secret diaries they kept while held prisoner and a copy of which has been exclusively obtained by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
They were kidnapped from their hostel at the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State by Boko Haram fighters on April 14, 2014.
Recalling the night of their kidnapping in April 2014, Naomi Adamu described in the diaries how Boko Haram had not come to the school in Chibok to abduct the girls, but rather to steal machinery for house building.
Unable to find what they were looking for, the militants were unsure what to do with the girls.
“One boy said they should burn us all, and they (some of the other fighters) said, ‘No, let us take them with us to Sambisa (Boko Haram’s remote forest base) … if we take them to Shekau (the group’s leader), he will know what to do,’” Adamu wrote.
She was one of about 220 girls who were stolen from their school in Chibok one night April 14, 2014 – a raid that sparked an international outcry and a viral campaign on social media with the hashtag #bringbackourgirls.
Championed by former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili and the U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama – along with a diverse cast of media celebrities – the campaign won international infamy for Boko Haram and helped galvanise the Nigerian government into negotiating for the girls’ release.
Adamu was among 82 of the Chibok girls released by Boko Haram in May – part of a second wave after 21 of them were freed in October. They are being held in a secret location in Abuja for what the government has called a “restoration process.”
A few others have escaped or been rescued, but about 113 of the girls are believed to be still held by the militant group.
The authenticity of the diaries, written by Adamu and her friend, Sarah Samuel, cannot be verified, nor their intended role as the government negotiates with Boko Haram for more releases.
The diaries shed light not only on the horrors the girls endured under Boko Haram, but their acts of resistance, and their staunch belief that they would one day go home.
The girls said they started documenting their ordeal a few months after the abduction, when Boko Haram gave them exercise books to use during Koranic lessons.
To hide the diaries from their captors, the girls would bury the notebooks in the ground, or carry them in their underwear.
Three of the other Chibok girls also contributed to the undated chronicles, which were written mainly in passable English, with some parts scribbled in less coherent Hausa.
In the meantime, over 300 staff of Imo State University Teaching Hospital, IMUTH, Orlu, yesterday, blocked the administrative complex of the hospital, over the allegation of half payment of salaries among other issues.
Their grievances were outlined by the chairman, Joint Action Committee, JAC, Mr. Bright Chukwunta, who led the protest. According to him, they have also declared a 21-day prayer and fasting to seek the face of God in order to intervene in their predicament.
He said: “We are not happy that our salaries have been arbitrarily reduced by 30 percent for the past 18 months and the salaries of the past three months, May, June and July of 2017, are yet to be paid. We cannot even pay our wards’ school fees.
“We conduct child delivery operation with torchlight. “And we have a member of the top management committee who has collected three months salary in advance, while we are not paid. There’s no staff clinic and the management is running on the hospital’s billing.
“The people you are seeing here are made up of Association of Resident Doctors, Medical and Dental Consultants of Nigeria, National Association of Nurses and Midwives, Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria and National Union of Allied Professionals.
“We have declared a 21-day fasting and prayer in the hospital for God to hear our cry.”
In his reaction, the Chief Medical Director of IMUTH, Mr. Fredrick Anolu, said: “It is true that we are owing our staff three months salaries and have been paying 70 per cent for sometimes now but it is not our making. The 70 per cent payment is the policy of the state government, which was implemented across the state.”
He said that efforts are on to address the issues raised by the staff, adding that if the staff go on strike, it would affect their means of their income.
Citizen with additional report from Vanguard
