It took us about a month to come out of the forest after escape — Freed Chibok Girl recounts

April 15, 2024

…Says some of her classmates still in captivity have 4 children each

A decade after, Amina Ali Nkeki, one of the 276 abducted schoolgirls of Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, in Borno State, has recounted the horrific event of her abduction by vicious Boko Haram terrorists on April 14, 2014.

Nkeki, who regained freedom in 2016 with a baby and a Boko Haram fighter who claimed to be her husband, told Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily crew on Monday that it took them one month plus before to come out of the forest after their escape, while some of her colleagues gave birth to four children for insurgents who held them hostages.

“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 become 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.

According to statistics released by parents of the abducted schoolgirls, 271 students were kidnapped on that unfortunate day but 57 girls escaped shortly in 2014, 103 were released through the intervention of the Federal Government, 20 others freed by the efforts of the state government but 92 students are still in captivity.