The federal government is sending a delegation immediately to Cameroon to verify whether a female suicide bomber arrested Friday in northern Cameroon is indeed one of the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls still remaining in Boko Haram captivity.
The girl, said to be around 15, and her female accomplice were arrested by local self-defense forces in the village of Limani, an area in northern Cameroon that has become the target of frequent suicide bombings in recent months.
The girl had reportedly cried out that she was one of the abducted schoolgirls when she was arrested before they could blow themselves up.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in a statement yesterday, said the delegation to be sent to Cameroon to verify the authenticity of the girl’s claim are members of Chibok community.
He also said the minister of women affairs, Senator Aisha Alhassan and Nigerian High Commissioner in Cameroon, Ambassador Hadiza Zakari Mustapha, had already swung into action and were receiving a lot of cooperation from the Cameroonian authorities.
Shehu said “It has been confirmed that one of two girls is claiming to be among the girls stolen from Chibok on April 14 last year although doubts have crept into the claim following new information from Cameroon. One of the two is also believed to be heavily drugged and therefore not in full control of her senses”.
He also disclosed that the Nigerian High Commissioner in Cameroon had confirmed that the arrested girls might be brought to Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, by Monday when the High Commission would seek permission to meet with them.
“The Murtala Mohammed Foundation has offered to cooperate with Nigerian government in sponsoring two parents from Chibok who have been selected to embark on the trip to Cameroon. The two are Yakubu Nkeki, Chairman of the Parents of the Abducted Girls from Chibok Association, and Yana Galang, the group’s women leader.
“The Nigerian High Commission will receive the two and facilitate their access to the two girls once permission to meet and verify their identity is obtained from the Cameroonian authorities”, the presidential spokesman stated.
FG Sends Delegation To Cameroon To Verify Female Suicide Bomber’s Chibok Claim
Advertisement