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“Why I Married Boko Haram Terrorist” – Freed Chibok Girl open up

Published

8 months ago

April 19, 2024

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

Nkeki, who regained freedom in 2016 with a baby, in an interview with Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, opened up on why she decided to marry a Boko Haram fighter.

Nkeki said marrying a Boko Haram terrorist was a route to escape from captivity because the abductors had threatened to enslave them for life.

She said, “For me, I married so that I will get freedom to go where I wanted and from there, I will escape.

“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 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.”

Speaking further, Nkeki, now a 200-level student of Mass Communication at a university in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, said some of her colleagues gave birth to four children for insurgents who held them hostages.

According to Nkeki, 92 of her colleagues are still in captivity and would be going through hunger, sicknesses and other challenges of motherhood in the forest.

She added, “Some of them are mothers of three children, four children. It’s not easy for them.

“I feel so sad because that place is not a good place for anyone, I hope they will be released one day.”

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).