A US-based Nigerian journalist and publisher of Pointblanknews.com, Mr. Jackson Ude, has said he was convinced that the issue of the kidnap of hundreds of Chibok girls in Borno State was no fluke but a true story which was turned into a political propaganda tool. In a post on his Facebook wall, Ude who shared a picture he took with two of the escaped girls now studying in the United States said:

Let us stop propagating all the conspiracy theories over the Chibok Girls abduction. It happened and it was real. Yes, that APC in their desperation to win election used the abduction as a campaign tool to defeat PDP is true. That some chieftains of the APC have showed traits of supporting Boko Haram, is also true. But that APC engineered the abduction of the Chibok Girls, is pure LIES.

I have been chatting with two out of five Chibok girls currently schooling in the Bronx area of New York. They live few minutes away from my house. Patience and Mercy escaped from the Boko Haram truck that loaded over 300 students. They described the Truck as a Mini Trailer like the ones used to deliver goods in warehouses or market places. In fact, Patience says it look like Dangote kind of mini trailers. She said the Boko Haram terrorists spoke different dialects and asked them in Hausa Language while abducting them what they were doing in the school. She said the whole Truck was chaotic as student wailed, crying. She said some of them jumped off the moving Truck and escaped into the bush.

Mercy and Patience account of what happened that night at the Chibok School is not fake news cooked in the kitchen of APC. It happened real but unfortunately became a propaganda tool of APC.

Both girls never spoke English in school. They are now learning English and studying to pass the GED at the Bronx Community College. They told me Hausa was the main language spoken in most Village schools in the North. That Teachers spoke to them mostly in Hausa. And before the abduction, while preparing for the WAEC exams, their teacher would tell them to just answer however they can and if they are lucky they can make Credit scores in the Subjects. They said they barely could read or understand English while in Chibok and that is why they found it hard initially to cope with schooling in the U.S. Patience attempted the GED exams but failed. She hopes to pass in her next attempt. She wants to study Psychology and become a Counsellor. Mercy has not taken the GED, she is studying for it and hopes to pass. She wants to become a Doctor and one day become President of Nigeria.

The story of Mercy and Patience is a confirmation that the Chibokgirls were kidnapped by Boko Haram. That APC may have used the abduction for political gains, is a different thing. Let’s condemn the abduction, condemn terrorism, ask Govt to do more in protecting the life and property of citizens. Let us stop the conspiracy theories and be more united in fixing our country that has been further broken apart by politics of hate, disunity, fraud, lies, incompetence engineered by tyrants in minority!

Mr Ude with the Chibok girls