First "Chibok Girls" found with baby, amidst controversy over her name

One of the 219 girls reported to have been kidnapped from Government Secondary School, Maiduguri, Nigeria on the night of 14-15 April, 2014 by dreaded terrorist group, Boko Haram, has been found. She is so far the only person to have been found since that night apart of the 59 girls that were reported to have escaped the melee mostly by jumping off the trucks unto which they were loaded.

The kidnapping necessitated the “#bringbackourgirl” campaign which reverberated the political and media space throughout 2014 and 2015, got the attention of international personalities, including the First Lady of United States Michelle Obama, and contributed to the ousting of the then Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan.

Before the news of the release of this girl, the Chibok had only being seen in the media on two occasions: first in May, 2014 when Boko Haram released a video of the girls reciting the Quran, and earlier in April, 2016 when CNN showed a broadcast of a video suspected to be shot in December, 2015 of fifteen of the girls in black robes.

The released “Chibok girl” was found Wednesday by civilian JTF officers, known also as the “vigilantes”, who recognized the girl and led her to the members of her family. According to youth leader, Manaseh Allan, “the girl was found by local vigilantes in Kilakesa village on the edge of Sambisa Forest near Damboa.”

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In a separate statement by the leader of the civilian JTF, Aboku Gaji, he confirmed that the girl was found by the vigilantes. According to him, “the moment this girl was discovered by our vigilantes, she was brought to my house. I instantly recognized her, and insisted that we should take her to her friends”.

He further added that upon the reuniting of the girl with her mother, she was then taken to the “authority”.

“Afterwards, we had to make them understand that the girl would not be left in their care. She must be handed over to the authority”.

In a similar, but later reaction, the Nigerian Army released a statement confirming the release of one of the “Chibok girl” thus:

“This is to confirm that one of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls… was among rescued persons by our troops”

However, inconsistencies abound with respect to the name of the girl. The statement released by the spokesman to the Nigerian Army, Col Sani Usman gave the name of the girl as “Falmata Mbalala”, while the Chibok vigilantes gave her name as “Amina Alli”. According to Aboku Gaji, however, “When we arrived at her house… I asked her mother to come and identify someone. The moment she saw her, she shouted her name: ‘Amina Amina’”.

In another account, Allan Manaseh noted that when she was taken to the vice-principal of her school, she was identified as “Aisha Alli”, being the name on the school register.

This thus raises the issue of identification: How well do the Nigerian authorities know the victims of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign? Because a government cannot say they are making concerted effort to release people whose identity may be subject to controversy.

One of the security experts our correspondent interviewed noted that the first step to the rescue of any kidnap victim is proper identification. He noted that:

“You cannot say you are making efforts to rescue the kidnapped Chibok girls, if their identities are not yet ascertained.

One of the essential means of identification is the name of the victim. The Military are not taken adequate care of the intelligence aspect of the mission if the issue of their names are still controversial.”

However, the Chibok girl was rescued with a baby and her “husband”, who is suspected to be a member of the terrorist group. This further casts credence to the report that some of the girls have been turned into s^x slaves for the male members of the terrorist group.