Carver and relative seek rescue of Chibok girls

…a rescued girl talks about her ordeal

A sculptor, Prune Nourry, a social activist, Lola Omolola, and the president of the Parents of Chibok Girls Association, Yakubu Nkeki, called on the federal government to save the remaining Chibok girls from Boko Haram terrorists .

This was revealed at a collaborative art exhibition, titled 'Statues Also Breathe, Tributes to the Young Heroines', in Ikoyi, Lagos on Saturday.

The project was undertaken by the sculptor Nourry, in collaboration with the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and the families of the missing girls.

The event aimed to ensure that the public continues to remember the abduction of 276 students from the Government Secondary School for Girls in Chibok, Borno State, by Boko Haram on April 14, 2014 .

The PUNCH reported that as of October 22, 2022, the Nigerian Army rescued two Chibok girls, Yana Pogu and Rejoice Sanki, from Borno. It can be recalled that in September 2022, the head of the intelligence unit of the Joint Task Force in the Northeast, Operation Hadin Kai, Colonel Obinna Ezuipke, said that of the 276 abducted by Boko Haram terrorists as of April 14, 2014, 98 were still in captivity.

The art exhibit featured 108 sculpted portraits of Chibok girls. He also used audiovisual media to show and make the audience feel the imagined agony of the Chibok girls.

Part of the event was a documentary about some of the rescued Chibok girls. The girls recounted their harrowing experiences at the hands of their captors. The documentary also showed how the portraits were made at the OAU.

Speaking at the art event, one of the abductees, Amina Alli, shared her experience of how she escaped from the kidnappers' lair in Sambisa Forest in 2016. She said: "I was kidnapped with others on 14th April 2014, I was in JSS 2. We were taken to different camps and I was lucky to have escaped when the Nigerian Armed Forces came. came on a raid where I was captured. It was in January 2016."

She, however, expressed optimism that after undergoing government-funded rehabilitation, she would survive the trauma of the abduction and live a normal life. She also called on the government to step up its efforts to search for and rescue her abducted classmates.

She said: "After receiving rehabilitation and meeting the president of the country, I went back to school. I live with my family and I am happy. I really wish that my other sisters could regain their freedom once day."

The curator of the exhibition, Nourry, said: "It is absolutely to remember the girls of Chibok. They are symbols of their agony, they also represent the fact that we take care of our daughters."

Prune stressed that the government must do more to save girls from Boko Haram insurgents.

Furthermore, a social activist, Lola Omolola, indicated that she joined other activists from the Bring Back Our Daughters movement because she felt that the abducted girls could have been her daughters or herself . She urged the government to place high value on the citizens of the country by securing the life and property of every Nigerian, especially women.

She added, "For the past eight years, I have dedicated my life to bringing Nigerian women together. The day my life changed was when I was watching CNN and heard that some of our daughters had been kidnapped. Those girls could have been my daughters; those girls could have been me.

Similarly, Chibok Missing Girls Parents Association President Yakubu Nkeki noted at the event that 38 parents of abducted girls died in the first three years of the incident. He also recalled how he traveled 50 km to meet the parents of the abducted girls.

Nkeki added: "At first it was difficult to reunite the parents. In fact, about seven members of my extended family were also abducted. I was the first person to organize an individual protest when the abduction happened for the first time. Many people warned about this, but I did not listen to them. As we speak, only one of my nieces has not yet returned.

“We are not resting our oars as an association to secure the release of the remaining abductees,” he said.

While appreciating the government and security forces for securing the release of some of the girls, he urged the government to do more to save the remaining abducted girls.